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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE 

Chronicle Hiftory 

of Henry the fift,with his 

battell fought at sJgin Qourt in 

France. Together with an- 
clent PiBoll* 

Ask hath bene fundry times fUydty the tight Honou* 

rabk the Lord chmkrldnc his 

Seruwts. 




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Facsimile of Title-Page, Third Quarto 



THENEWHUDSON 
SHAKESPEARE, Ul 



KING HENRY 
THE FIFTH 



INmODUCTTONAtD NOTES BY 

HENRYNORMAN 
HUDSON, LkD^ 

EDITED AND REVISED BY 
EBENEZER CHARITON 
BLACK LLD- (GLASGOW) 
WTltt THE COOPERATION OF 
ANDREW JACKS ON 
GEORGE ETTD-CMEERST) 



SCHOOl. 
EDITION 



GINNAND COMPANY 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Copies Received 

OCT 21 1908 

Copyright entry _, 
01ASS txJ W> No. 



p^jjV* 



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<tf\ 



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Entered at Stationers' Hall 



Copyright, 1881 
By HENRY N. HUDSON 



Copyright, 1908 
By GINN & COMPANY 



Copyright, 1909 
By KATE W. HUDSON 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



3Efte gtftenaeum flregg 

GINN & COMPANY • PRO- 
PRIETORS • BOSTON • U.S.A. 



PREFACE 

The text of this edition of King Henry the Fifth is based 
upon a collation of the Quarto of 1600 as given in P. A. 
Daniel's facsimile reprint, 1881, the Quarto of 1608 in the 
Boston Public Library, the seventeenth century Folios, the 
Globe edition, and that of Delius. As compared with the 
text of the earlier editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, it is 
conservative. Exclusive of changes in spelling, punctuatior,, 
and stage directions, very few emendations by eighteenth 
century and nineteenth century editors have been adopted ; 
and these, with every variation from the First Folio, are 
indicated in the textual notes. These notes are printed 
immediately below the text so that a reader or student may 
see at a glance the evidence in the case of a disputed read- 
ing and have some definite understanding of the reasons 
for those differences in the text of Shakespeare which fre- 
quently surprise and very often annoy. A consideration of 
the more poetical, or the more dramatically effective, of 
two variant readings will often lead to rich results in 
awakening a spirit of discriminating interpretation and in 
developing true creative criticism. In no sense is this a 
textual variorum edition. The variants given are only those 
of importance and high authority. 

The spelling and the punctuation of the text are mod- 
ern, except in the case of verb terminations in -ed 9 which, 

iii 



iv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

when the e is silent, are printed with the apostrophe in its 
place. This is the general usage in the First Folio. Modern 
spelling has to a certain extent been followed in the 
text variants ; but the original spelling has been retained 
wherever its peculiarities have been the basis for impor- 
tant textual criticism and emendation. 

With the exception of the position of the textual vari- 
ants, the plan of this edition is similar to that of the old 
Hudson Shakespeare. It is impossible to specify the vari- 
ous instances of revision and rearrangement in the matter 
of the Introduction and the interpretative notes, but the 
endeavor has been to retain all that gave the old edition 
its unique place and to add the results of what seems vital 
and permanent in later inquiry and research. 

While it is important that the principle of suurn cuique 
be attended to so far as is possible in matters of research 
and scholarship, it is becoming more and more difficult to 
give every man his own in Shakespearian annotation. The 
amount of material accumulated is so great that the identity- 
origin of much important comment and suggestion is either 
wholly lost or so crushed out of shape as to be beyond 
recognition. Instructive significance perhaps attaches to 
this in editing the w T orks of one who quietly made so much 
of materials gathered by others. But the list of authorities 
given on page li will indicate the chief source of much 
that has gone to enrich the value of this edition. Espe- 
cial acknowledgment is here made of the obligations to 
Dr. William Aldis Wright, whose work in the collation of 
Quartos, Folios, and the more important English and 



PREFACE V 

American editions of Shakespeare has made all subsequent 
editors and investigators his eternal bondmen. 

With regard to the general plan of this revision of Hud- 
son's Shakespeare, Professor W. P. Trent, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, has offered valuable suggestions and given important 
advice ; and to Mr. M. Grant Daniell's patience, accuracy, 
and judgment this volume owes both its freedom from many 
a blunder and its possession of a carefully arranged index. 

The genealogical tables on pages xxxii-xxxv were pre- 
pared by Professor Spalding, of Pomona College. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION 

Page 

I. Sources ix 

The Main Story x 

Holin shed's Chronicles x 

The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth xi 

" So Work the Honey-Bees" (I, ii, 187-204) . xii 

II. Date of Composition xiii 

External Evidence xiii 

Internal Evidence xvi 

III. Early Editions xvii 

Quartos* xvii 

Folios . . . . xviii 

Relation of Text of Quartos to that of 

Folios xviii 

Rowe's Editions xxi 

IV. Versification and Diction xxi 

Blank Verse xxi 

Alexandrines xxiii 

Rhyme xxiii 

Prose xxiv 

V. Dramatic Structure xxv 

VI. Management of Time and Place xxvi 

VII. The Elizabethan Theatre xxviii 

VIII. Historical Connections xxx 

English Genealogical Table xxxii 

French Genealogical Table xxxiv 

vii 



viii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Page 

IX. The Characters xxxvi 

Why Falstaff is not Introduced xxxvi 

The Comic Characters xxxvii 

Bardolph, Nym, the Boy . m xxxvii 

Fluellen, Jamy, Macmorris xxxix 

The King xlii 

His Moral Complexion xlv 

His Frank Human-Heartedness .... xlvi 
His Wooing of Katharine xlviii 

X. General Characteristics xlix 

Authorities (with Abbreviations) ........ li 

Chronological Chart « Hi 

THE TEXT 

Prologue 3 

Act I 6 

Act II 30 

Act III ..." 60 

Act IV 97 

Act V 146 

Epilogue . 170 

INDEX 

I. Words and Phrases 171 

II. Quotations from Holinshed 175 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Title-Page of Third Quarto Frontispiece 

Title-Page of First Quarto . xix 

Van Buchell-De Witt Drawing, Swan Theatre . . xxix 
Visscher's Engraving of the Second Globe Theatre xxxi 



INTRODUCTION 



Note. In citations from Shakespeare's plays and nondramatic 
poems the numbering has reference to the Globe edition, except in 
the case of this play, where the reference is to this edition. 



I. SOURCES 

The serious Elizabethan drama began in patriotism and 
had a high political motive. The perils and difficulties of a 
nation rent asunder by bitterly opposing factions confronted 
Elizabeth at the beginning of her reign, and when Thomas 
Sackville and Thomas Norton wrote Gorboduc, the first regu- 
lar English tragedy, their main object was to warn the Eng- 
lish people of the danger in a kingdom divided against itself 
and to show the maiden queen the perils involved in uncer- 
tainty as to legitimate succession to a throne. The story 
was taken from British legendary history, and blank verse, 
destined to be the great national measure, was used for the 
first time in an original English play. With that steady 
growth of national spirit w 7 hich characterized the reign of 
Elizabeth, developed the taste for chronicle plays dealing 
with the history of the nation in its formative period. The 
national drama grew up with the increasing pride of nation. 
In the defeat of the Armada this pride of nation reached 
full tide, and the enthusiasm found immortal expression in 
Shakespeare's ten history plays culminating in the drama of 
the hero-king w T ho won the battle of Agincourt. The true 



x THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

source of the spirit of King Henry the Fifth is the patriot- 
ism and political enthusiasm of the decade which closed the 
sixteenth century in England *; the sources of the letter and 
historical detail of the drama are Holinshed's Chronicles 
and an old play, The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth, 

The Main Story 

i. Holinshed f s Chronicles, As in his other plays dealing 
with English history, Shakespeare derived the great body 
of his material for King Henry the Fifth from the Chronicles 
of England, Scotland, and Ireland, of Raphael Holinshed 
(Holynshed, Hollynshed, Hollingshead, etc.), first published 
in two folio volumes in 1577. A second edition appeared 
in 1 586-1 5 87, "newlie augmented and continued." 2 In this 
second edition are many significant changes in the text, 
and the fact that Shakespeare adopts these 3 strengthens 

1 It has been held that King Henry the Fifth was written for a 
similar reason to that which led Sackville and Norton to write Gor- 
boduc. " The reign of Henry V was a good subject for a dramatist 
who wished to cure his countrymen of these suicidal hatreds through 
an appeal to the national pride." — W. G. Boswell-Stone. In Politics 
of Shakspere'' s Historical Plays (New Shakspere Society Transactions, 
1874) Richard Simpson says that the Welsh, English, Scottish, and 
Irish captains are introduced serving side by side under a common 
flag, " as if to symbolise the union of the four nations under one 
crown, and the cooperation in enterprises of honour, no longer 
hindered by the touchiness of a separatist nationalism." 

. 2 In W. G. Boswell- Stone's Shakspere' } s Holinshed are given all 
the portions of the Chronicles which are of special interest to the 
Shakespeare student. 

3 For example, ' dishonest,' in I, ii, 49, is in the second edition 
where the first has 'vnhonest'; 'desolation,' in II, ii, 173, is in the 
second edition, where the first has ' destruction.' Boswell-Stone 
gives other proofs of this kind. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

the conclusion that this was the edition used by him. This 
evidence is of particular weight in the case of King Henry 
the Fifth, for in no other play does Shakespeare reproduce 
so much of the exact language of a ' source.' His deviations 
from Holinshed are in the interests of dramatic economy 
and artistic effectiveness. The essential facts are not altered. 
He deals with his historical material as Turner treated the 
features of a landscape in his pictures of places. Shake- 
speare selects and arranges details to get the spirit of a 
movement and the imaginative truth of a series of events. 

2. The Famous Victories of Henry the Fifth. Entered 
in The Stationers' Registers in 1594 under the title The 
famous victories of He?irye the Fyft conteyninge the honorable 
battell of ' Agin-court \s an anonymous chronicle history which 
was acted as early as 1588 and printed in 1598 "as it was 
plaide by the Queenes Maiesties Players." 1 The first half 
of this old play covers much the same historical ground as 
the two parts of Shakespeare's King Henry the Fourth, and 
undoubtedly gave hints for the comic business there; the 
second half deals with the general subject-matter of King 
Henry the Fifth. While The Fa?nous Victories is also 
founded on Holinshed and follows in a rough, crude way 
the same lines as Shakespeare's play, there are some inter- 
esting passages in both for which there is no original in 
Holinshed and for which Shakespeare is certainly indebted 
to the old chronicle history. Among these are the incident 
of an English comic character's adventure with a French 
soldier (IV, iv), the details of the peace negotiations (V, ii, 
1-98), and the wooing scene (V, ii, 98-269) where in The 

1 Reprinted in Hazlitt's Shakespeare' 's Library. 



xii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Famous Victories Katharine speaks in English. In the ac- 
count of the Dauphin's present to Henry, which is merely 
mentioned in Holinshed, the details and the phraseology of 
the old play are adopted by Shakespeare. See note on I, ii, 
255. In the broken French-English of one of the soldier 
scenes in The Famous Victories is what may have suggested 
the dialect passages in King Henry the Fifth. 

"So Work the Honey-Bees . . ." (I, ii, 187-204.) 

As the note on I, ii, 187 indicates, bees have ever been a 
favorite subject of poetic simile, but the unusual elaboration 
of the apologue in Canterbury's speech attracts attention 
as a kind of ' purple patch/ * and it is not surprising to find 
that it is probably borrowed from Lyly. In Euphues and 
his England, Fidus, the old Kentish beekeeper, in his little 
garden discourses at great length upon the polity of bees : 

Thou wouldest think, that they were a kinde of people, a common 
wealth for Plato, where they all labour, all gather honny, flye all 
together in a swarme . . . They lyue vnder a lawe, vsing great 
reuerence to their elder, as to the wiser. They chuse a King, whose 
pallace they frame both brauer in show, and stronger in substaunce : 
whome if they find to fall, they establish again in his throne, with no 
less duty than deuotion . . . They call a Parliament, wher-in they con- 
sult, for lawes, statutes, penalties, chusing officers, and creating their 
King, not by affection but reason . . . Euery one hath his office, some 
trimming the honny, some working the wax, one framing hiues . . . 
Diuers hew, others polish, all are carefull to doe their work so 
strongly, as they may resist the craft of such drones, as seek to liue 
by their labours, which maketh them to keepe watch and warde. 2 

1 Shakespeare's introduction of this lengthy disquisition has been 
condemned as a dramatic impropriety, but may it not be regarded 
as thoroughly ' in character ' in the discourse of an archbishop ? 

2 Lyly's Euphues and his England, edited by Arber, pages 261-263. 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

Like many of Lyly's natural history allusions, the original 
of this is in Pliny. See Natural History, Book XI, Chapters 
iv-xxii. 

II. DATE OF COMPOSITION 

The date of composition of King Henry the Fifth falls 
within 1600, the later time limit (terminus ante quern), and 
1598, the earlier time limit (terminus post quern). The 
weight of evidence is in favor of 159 8- 1599. 

External Evidence 

1. Negative. King He?iry the Fifth is not mentioned by 
Francis Meres in the Palladis Tamia, Wits Treasury; 
being the Second Fart of Wits Commonwealth, published 
in 1598. Here Meres gives a list of twelve noteworthy 
Shakespeare plays in existence at that time. He expressly 
refers to " Richard the 2, Richard the 3, Henry the 4, King 
John" and as the patriotic and popular qualities of King 
Henry the Fifth, if it had been in existence, would undoubt- 
edly have led to its being mentioned in that famous list, 
the negative evidence gives 1598 as a satisfactory earlier 
time limit. 

2. Positive. (1) Allusion in King Henry the Fourth. In 
the epilogue to the second part of King Henry the Fourth 
the speaker says, " our humble author will continue the 
story, with Sir John in it, and make you merry with fair 
Katharine of France ; where, for anything I know, Falstaff 
shall die of a sweat, unless already a be kill'd with your 
hard opinions." This seems to indicate that in 159 6- 1597, 
when Shakespeare may have completed King Henry the 



xiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Fourth, he had in view for speedy production such a play 
as King Henry the Fifth, That part of the promise which 
relates to Falstaff was fulfilled in The Merry Wives of 
Windsor, probably dashed off 1 in 1597-1598, and the rest 
of the promise, it is natural to assume, was fulfilled as soon 
after as possible. 

(2) Every Man in His Humour, In the prologue to Ben 
Jonson's popular play, Every Man in His Humour, there is' 
a seemingly pointed reference to a passage in the speech 
of Chorus preceding the first act of King Henry the Fifth, 
See note, Chorus-prologue, I, 29-31. Ben Jonson's play 
was produced in 1598 by Shakespeare's own company, but 
the date of composition of the prologue is uncertain. Pro- 
logues and epilogues were often added to plays to suit 
special circumstances of performance. This prologue was 
not printed in the quarto edition of Jonson's play which 
was published in 1601 ; it appeared first in the folio edi- 
tion of his works in 161 6. 

(3) The Stationers' Registers. The earliest 2 unmistakable 

1 Tradition says in a fortnight, to please Elizabeth, who had 
ordered Shakespeare to write a play to show Falstaff in love. P. A. 
Daniel and the others, who hold that The Merry Wives was written 
after King Henry the Fifth, base much on the mention of "Auncient 
Pistoll and Corporall Nym " on the title-page of the quarto edition 
of The Merry Wives, published in 1602, as evidence that they had 
become well-known characters through their appearance in King 
Henry the Fifth. 

2 Nash in Pierce Pennilesse his Supplication to the Devill, 1592, 
refers to a play introducing King Henry the Fifth ; and Henslowe 
in his Diary mentions a play of harey the Vth (Furnivall here reads 
harey the 6th) as having been performed on May 14, 1592, and an- 
other harey the Vth as a new play produced November 28, 1595, but 
these are undoubtedly references to The Famous Victories. 



INTRODUCTION xv 

references to Shakespeare's play are the following entries 
in The Stationers' Registers l : 

my lord chamberlens menns plaies Entred 
27 may 1600 viz 

to master A moral of clothe breches and velvet hose 

Robertes 
27 May Allarum to London 

To hym 

4 &ttfftt£ti 

As you like yt | a booke 
Henry the Ffift | a booke 

Euery man in his humour | a booke Kobe staied 2 

The commedie of muche A doo about-nothing 
a booke | 

14, attffttatt [1600] 

Thomas Pavyer Entred for his Copyes by Direction of master white 
warden vnder his hand wrytinge. These Copyes 
followinge beinge thinges formerlye printed and 
sett over to the sayd Thomas Pavyer 

viz. . . . 
The history e of HENRY the Vth with the battell of 
Agencourt vjd 3 

The former of these entries is not in regular course in the 
Registers and no date is attached to the ' 4 August,' but 
the proximity of ' 1 600 ' in the previous entry and other 
circumstances make 1600 certain. The ' to be staied ' shows 
that the first application for license to print was objected 
to, but ten days later the bar was removed in the case of 

1 Professor E. Arber's Transcripts of The Stationers' Registers 
(1554-1640), 4 vols., 1875-1877. 

2 ' To be staied ' is the old expression for ' not to be printed.' 

3 sixpence. This was the usual price of a Quarto. 



xvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

King Henry the Fifth and the play was issued as a Quarto 
(the First Quarto) within the year. 

Internal Evidence 

i. Allusion to Essex. The only direct allusion to a con- 
temporary event in Shakespeare gives an unmistakable later 
time limit for the composition of King Henry the Fifth. 
This is the reference to the Earl of Essex in the speech of 
Chorus prefixed to the last act. See note, Chorus-prologue, 
V, 30-32. Essex left for Ireland on April 15 (Stow gives 
the date of the enthusiastic demonstration on the departure 
from London as March 27), 1599, and as news of his dis- 
astrous failure reached London by the end of June, these 
lines must have been written before that time. The fact 
that Essex was an intimate friend of the Earl of Southamp- 
ton to whom Shakespeare dedicated Venus and Adonis and 
Lucrece, and that Southampton accompanied Essex to Ire- 
land, would give the dramatist a peculiar interest in this 
ill-starred expedition. It is not necessary for the argument 
that the play was begun in 1598 to suggest that the Chorus- 
prologues were written later than the body of the play. It 
is significant that the lines occur in the last act, which is 
short, chiefly prose, and comparatively free from elaborated 
transcripts from Holinshed. 

2. " This wooden O." If " this wooden O " of the first 
speech of Chorus refers to the Globe theatre the argument 
for 1599 is strengthened, as this famous theatre was built 
early in 1599 by Richard Burbage (Burbadge) and his 
brother Cuthbert out of the wood of the dismantled theatre 
in Shoreditch known as the Theatre originally built for 
their father, James Burbage. But between 1595 and 1599 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

Shakespeare often played on the stages of the Theatre and 
the Curtain, and " this wooden O " would be applicable to 
either of these. 

3. Style and Diction. The diction of King Henry the 
Fifth, the quality of the blank verse, the proportion of prose 
to verse, the use of rhyme, the rhetorical quality of the 
play as a whole, the prevalence of epic and lyrical interest 
over dramatic, and the general spirit of the play which 
never touches the deep note of pathos except in the brief 
account of FalstafPs death, support the external and the 
other internal evidence that the date of composition falls 
between the closing months of 1598 and the midsummer 
of 1599. The sonority and superb movement in the blank 
verse of the speeches of Chorus would almost suggest a 
later date for their composition. But the other evidence 
is against this. (See below, Versification and Diction.) 

III. EARLY EDITIONS 

Quartos 

King Henry the Fifth was first published in 1600 in the 
Quarto edition referred to above, the First Quarto, desig- 
nated in the textual notes of this edition as Qj. 1 The First 
Quarto had the title-page reproduced on page xix. 

In 1602 appeared the Second Quarto, Q 2 , a reprint of 
the First, with a few textual improvements and the follow- 
ing change on the title-page : " Printed by Thomas Creede, 
for Thomas | Pauier, and are to be sold at his shop in 

1 Reprinted in The Cambridge Shakespeare, Vol. IX, and in Daniel 
and Nicholson's Parallel Texts. 



xviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

Cornhill, | at the signe of the Cat and Parrets neare | the 
Exchange, 1602." 

The Third Quarto, Q 3 , was published in 1608, with the 
title-page shown as the frontispiece of this volume. 1 It is 
the best printed of the three Quartos in every way, and 
while mainly a reprint of the second it has additional cor- 
rections and improvements. 

Folios 

The text of King Henry the Fifth in the Quartos is less 
than half the length of the present accepted text, 2 which is 
mainly that of the First Folio, F l9 published in 1623. In 
this first collected edition of Shakespeare's dramas the title 
of the play is simply The Life of Henry the Fift. It occupies 
pages 69 to 95 inclusive, in the division of the book devoted 
to ' Histories/ where the plays are arranged in historical se- 
quence from The life 6° death of King John to The Famous 
History of the Life of King Henry the Eight. 

The Second Folio, F 2 (1632), the Third Folio, F 3 (1663, 
1664), and the Fourth Folio, F 4 (1685), show few variants 
in the text of King Henry the Fifth and none of importance. 

Relation of Text of Quartos to that of Folios 

In the Quartos, as the reproductions of the title-pages in 
this edition show, the author's name is nowhere given ; the 
text is less than half the length of that of the Folios ; the 
five Chorus-prologues, the whole of the first scene, the first 
scene of the third act, the second scene of the fourth act, 

1 The initials ' T. P.' stand for Thomas Pavier (Pavyer). 

2 The First Quarto contains 1623 lines, the Globe text 3380. 



THE 

CRONICLE 

Hiftory of Henry the fift, 

With his battell fought at Agin Court in 

France. Togither with Auntient 

Pistoll. 



As it hath benefundry times playdby the Right honorable 
the Lord Chamberlaine hisferuants. 




LONDON 

Printed by Thomas Creede, for Tho. Milling- 

ton,and Iohn Busby And are to be 

fold athis houfe in Carter Lane, next 

the Povvle head. 1600. 



Title-Page, First Quarto 



XX THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

and many other passages, those too among the best in the 
play, and even in the whole compass of Shakespeare's works, 
being wanting altogether. All these, besides more or less 
of enlargement in a great many places, together with the 
marks of a careful finishing hand running through the whole, 
were supplied in the First Folio ; which, accordingly, is our 
chief authority for the text, though the Quartos yield valu- 
able aid towards correcting the errors and curing the defects 
of that copy. See textual notes, II, i, 22 ; II, iv, 107, etc. 
•That the issue of 1600 was surreptitious is on all hands 
allowed. But there has been much controversy whether it 
was printed from a full and perfect copy of Shakespeare's 
first draft of the play, or from a mangled and mutilated 
copy, such as could be made up by unauthorized and in- 
competent reporters. The most considerable argument for 
the former position is, that the Quartos have in some cases 
several consecutive lines precisely as they stand in the 
Folios, while, on the other hand, of many of the longest 
and best passages in the Folios the Quartos have no traces 
whatever. But this is nowise decisive of the point either 
way, because, granting that some person or persons under- 
took to report the play as spoken, it is not impossible that 
he or they may have taken down some parts very carefully, 
and omitted others altogether. And the editors of the First 
Folio tell us in their address To the great Variety of Readers : 
"You were abus'd with diuerse stolne, and surreptitious 
copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealthes 
of iniurious impostors." Such evidence as P. A. Daniel 
massed in his Introduction to the Parallel Texts is almost 
conclusive that in the Quartos we have no first draft of the 
play written by Shakespeare and afterwards expanded by 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

him into the full form given in the Folios, but an incom- 
petent reporter's abridgment of a version already shortened 
for acting purposes. 

Rowe's Editions 

The first critical editor of Shakespeare's plays was Nicho- 
las Rowe, poet laureate to George I. His first edition was 
issued in 1709 in six octavo volumes. In this edition Rowe, 
an experienced playwright, marked the entrances and exits 
of the characters and introduced many stage directions. 
He also introduced the list of dramatis personam which has 
been made the basis for all later lists. A second edition in 
eight volumes was published in 17 14. Rowe followed very 
closely the text of the Fourth Folio, but modernized spell- 
ing, punctuation, and occasionally grammar. 

IV. VERSIFICATION AND DICTION 

Blank Verse 

A little more than half (191 8 lines of the total 3559) of 
King Henry the Fifth is in blank verse — the unrhymed, 
iambic five-stress (decasyllabic) verse, or iambic pentameter, 
introduced into England from Italy by Henry Howard, Earl 
of Surrey, about 1540, and used by him in a translation of 
the second and fourth books of Vergil's sEneid. Nicholas 
Grimald {TotteVs Miscellany \ 1557) employed the measure 
for the first time in English original poetry, and its roots 
began to strike deep into British soil and absorb substance. 
It is peculiarly significant, as noted above, that Sackville and 
Norton should have used it as the measure of Gorboduc, 



xxii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

the first English tragedy. About the time when Shakespeare 
arrived in London the infinite possibilities of blank verse as 
a vehicle for dramatic poetry and passion were being shown 
by Kyd and above all by Marlowe. Blank verse as used by 
Shakespeare is really an epitome of the development of 
the measure in connection with the English drama. In his 
earlier plays the blank verse is often similar to that of 
Gorboduc. The tendency is to adhere to the syllable-count- 
ing principle, to make the line the unit, the sentence and 
phrase coinciding with the line (end-stopped verse), and to 
use five perfect iambic feet to the line. In plays of the 
middle period, such as The Merchant of Venice, King Henry 
the Fifth, and As You Like It, written between 1596 and 
1600, the blank verse is more like that of Kyd and Mar- 
lowe, with less monotonous regularity in the structure and 
an increasing tendency to carry on the sense from one line 
to another without a syntactical or rhetorical pause at the 
end of the line (run-on verse, enjanibenient). Redundant 
syllables now abound, and the melody is richer and fuller. 
In Shakespeare's later plays the blank verse breaks away 
from bondage to formal line limits, and sweeps all along 
with it in freedom, power, and organic unity. 

The verse of King Henry the Fifth is much less monoto- 
nously regular than that of the earlier plays ; it is more 
flexible and varied, more musical and sonorous, and only 
here and there, chiefly in the speeches of Chorus, has it 
the superb movement of the verse in King Lear, The 
Winter's Tale, and The Tempest. End-stopped, normally 
regular iambic pentameter lines often occur (as, for instance, 
Chorus-prologue, I, 13, 14; I, i, 13, 36, 48, 82, etc.), but 
everywhere are variations and deviations from the norm. 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

The proportion of run-on lines is about the same as that in 
The Merchant of Venice, which is slightly in excess of that 
in Othello, but only about half of what is found in The 
Tempest. There are 336 feminine endings and 2 light end- 
ings ; the play contains no weak endings. Of the 3 1 short 
lines in the play a large proportion will be found in Pistol's 
rant, where they help the mock-heroic effect. 

Alexandrines 

While French prosodists apply the term Alexandrine only 
to a twelve-syllable line with the pause after the sixth syl- 
lable, it is generally used in English to designate iambic 
six-stress verse, or iambic hexameter. This was a favorite 
Elizabethan measure, and it was common in moral plays 
and the earlier heroic drama. Alexandrines lend themselves 
easily to mock-heroic use, and Pistol characteristically reels 
off a notable verse or two of this kind (see II, i, 61 ; III, 
vi, 39) ; other examples are scattered up and down the 
play, II, ii, 168; III, hi, 5; III, v, 24 ; Chorus-prologue, 
IV, 22, 28 ; IV, hi, 18, 33, etc. 

Rhyme 

1 . Couplets. In King Henry the Fifth are only sixty- two 
lines of rhymed pentameter verse (rhymed couplets) and most 
of these are ' rhyme-tags ' at the end either of scenes, where 
their use is merely mechanical, or of speeches, where the 
couplet often has the effect of a clinching epigram. A 
progress from more to less rhyme in the regular dialogue is 
a sure index to Shakespeare's development as a dramatist 
and a master of expression. In the early Love's Labour's 
Lost are more than a thousand rhyming five-stress iambic 



xxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

lines • in The Tempest are only two ; in The Winters Tale 
not one. 

2. A Popular Saying. Proverbs and bits of popular wis- 
dom are naturally either in rhyme or alliterative rhythm. 
Cf. I, ii, 167-168. 

3.- So/tg- Snatches. The only rhymed lyrical measures in 
the play are the iambic snatches trolled by Pistol and the 
Boy in III, ii, 8— 11, 15-19. 

4. Sonnet. The epilogue is a regular Shakespearian sonnet. 
See note, page 170. Its authorship has been the subject of 
much discussion, especially in connection with the refer- 
ences to King Henry the Sixth in the closing couplet. 

Prose 

In the development of the English drama the use of prose 
as a vehicle of expression entitled to equal rights with verse 
was due to Lyly. He was the first to use prose with power 
and distinction in original plays, and did memorable service 
in preparing the way for Shakespeare's achievement. In 
Shakespeare's earlier plays where rhyme abounds there is 
little or no prose ; the proportion of prose to blank verse 
increases with the decrease of rhyme. Considerably more 
than a third of King Henry the Fifth is in prose, and four 
kinds may be distinguished : (1) The prose of proclama- 
tions and formal documents, as II, ii, 145-150; III, vi, 
1 1 6-133. (2) The prose of Mow life' and the dialogue 
of comic characters, as in the speeches of Bardolph, Nym, 
Fluellen, Gower, and the others. This is a development of 
the humorous prose found, for example, in Greene's come- 
dies that deal with country life. (3) The prose of familiar 
dialogue, as in Henry's talk with the soldiers, III, vi, 86-1 10 ; 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

IV, i, 95-217. This, too, is the prose of the wooing scene. 
(4) The humorous prose spoken as a rule, though not ex- 
clusively, by persons of superior rank or importance, — the 
prose of high comedy, vivacious, sparkling, and flashing with 
repartee, as in III, iv, vii. This is a development of Lyly's 
essentially euphuistic prose. 

Instructive examples of Shakespeare's transition from prose 
to verse are IV, i, 218 (see note from Johnson), and viii, 
70. The wooing scene begins in blank verse, V, ii, 98— 
10 1, but Katharine's broken English changes the dialogue 
to prose, — the natural medium of expression for a lover 
who speaks as " plain soldier." With line 323 the heroic, 
national interest of the play is resumed and prose gives 
way naturally to blank verse. 

V. DRAMATIC STRUCTURE 

In dramatic structure King Henry the Fifth is unique 
among Shakespeare's plays. Nowhere else does his work 
show such a combination of epic and dramatic methods. 
Elsewhere he makes use of prologues and epilogues ; Chorus 
appears in Pericles and in Romeo a?id Juliet; but in King 
Henry the Fifth the appeal of Chorus is specifically to the 
historic imagination, and the main interest of his five pro- 
logues is epic (see note, Fitter Chorus, page 3). The first 
words of Chorus are an almost conventional epic appeal to 
the Muse. This epic spirit, trembling with lyric subjectivity, 
so dominates the play and finds expression in such superb 
declamation and impassioned rhetoric that, when Garrick 
produced King Henry the Fifth, Chorus was the part he 
elected to interpret. 



xxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

But though the dramatic interest is subordinate to the 
epic, the work is a drama with a plot that develops simply 
and naturally through the five essential stages of (i) the 
exposition or introduction ; (2) the complication or rising 
action ; (3) the climax or turning point ; (4) the resolution 
or falling action; and (5) the catastrophe or conclusion. 
As in Shakespeare's other plays, the organic elements in the 
action do not correspond to the mechanical division into 
acts. The exposition is contained in the first scene, where 
the main dramatic motive is introduced. The complication 
begins in the second scene, which tells that war is determined 
upon ; and the rising action continues through the four scenes 
of the second act and the seven scenes of the third, which, 
with humorous interludes that give relief and human inter- 
est, describe the preparation for the war and the campaign 
in France. The climax is reached in the close of the third 
scene of the fourth act, when the battle is joined ; and the 
humorous encounter between Pistol and the French soldier 
in the following scene begins the falling action, which has 
its denouement in the peaceful alliance between England 
and France. 

VI. MANAGEMENT OF TIME AND PLACE 

1 . Historic 1'itne. A period of six years is covered by the 
events of the play. On April 10, 14 13, Henry was crowned ; 
in the following Lent he appears to have received the Dau- 
phin's gift of tennis-balls, and on April 30, 14 14, the Parlia- 
ment met at Leicester. Here begins the historical time of 
the play. It closes with May 20 (or May 21), 1420, when 
Henry was formally betrothed to Katharine. 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

2. Dramatic Time. " The historical drama," says Bulwer 
Lytton, " is the concentration of historical events." In King 
Henry the Fifth the happenings of six years are represented 
as the occurrences of nine (at most ten) days with inter- 
vals, distributed over the acts and scenes as follows 1 : ist 
day, I, i, ii. Interval. 2d day, II, i. Interval. 3d day, II, 
ii, hi. Interval. 4th day, II, iv. Interval. (Here, probably, 
comes III, iv.) 5th day, III, i-iii. Interval. 6th day, III, 
v. Interval. 7th day, III, vi. Interval. 8th day, III, vii • 

' IV, i-viii. Interval. (Here, probably, comes V, i.) 9th day, 
V, ii. The five years between 1415 and 1420 pass between 
the 8th day and the 9th. 

3. Place. In Quartos and Folios are very few stage direc- 
tions as to place. In King Henry the Fifth the only one is 
in III, i {Actus Secundus in Folios), where we read Enter the 
King . . . Scaling Ladders at Harflew. The speeches of 
Chorus give valuable help in determining locality. These 
and the internal evidence point to Shakespeare's tendency 
towards concentration and centralization in localities as well 
as in historical happenings. For example, according to Hol- 
inshed the events described in the first scene took place at 
Leicester, but there is little doubt that London was where 
Shakespeare placed them. " In the absence of clear evi- 
dence to the contrary we may generally assume that Shake- 
speare's scenes are laid in London." — Boswell-Stone. 

1 P. A. Daniel in Transactions of New Shakspere Society, 1877- 

1879. 



xxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 
VII. THE ELIZABETHAN THEATRE 

It is interesting to find that the play which contains 
Shakespeare's only unmistakable allusion to a contempo- 
rary event (see above, Date of Composition, Allusion to 
Essex) should also contain his only equally unmistakable 
complaints about the inadequacy of Elizabethan stage ac- 
cessories. Interesting theories have been advanced by 
Knight and others as to Shakespeare's solicitude to win 
his audience's indulgence in this respect. The reason prob- 
ably lies in passionate enthusiasm for his theme and the 
feeling that any attempt to give due expression to it must 
be inadequate. But these references to the " unworthy 
scaffold," u this cockpit," " this wooden O," compel atten- 
tion to the shape and peculiarities of the Elizabethan theatre. 
The two engravings here reproduced 1 give contemporary 
views of the exterior and the interior of typical Elizabethan 
theatres. The buildings were high, circular (the earliest 
form), octagonal or hexagonal in shape (the Fortune theatre 
was rectangular). Two balconies with a gallery (porticus) 
above, or perhaps three galleries, protected by a roof {tectum) 
and provided with seats (sedilia), rose against the inner wall ; 
these were reached by stairs {ingressus) from the central 
pit, ' the yard' as it was usually called (p/anities, arena). 
There were no seats in the yard and those who stood there 

1 The sketch of the interior of the Swan theatre was made by 
A. van Buchell from the notes of J. de Witt, a Dutch scholar who 
visited London in 1596. It was reproduced and published in Zur 
Kenntnis der altenglischeii Biihne, Bremen, 1888. The exterior view 
of the second Globe theatre (built after the burning of the first in 
161 3) is from an enlargement of Visscher's map engraving of London 
reproduced in Halliwell-Phillipps's Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare. 




^anthtsJlut ojittKu- 






II 



Interior of the Swan Theatre 

Van Buchell-De Witt drawing, now in the University Library, Utrecht. 



xxx THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

were nicknamed ' the groundlings ' (cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 12). 
Deep into the yard projected the stage or platform (proscae- 
nium) raised on posts or trestles about four feet high. This 
condition, with the necessary absence of all such scenery 
arrangements as the modern theatre-goer is accustomed to, 
developed to an extraordinary degree that rhetorical quality 
in the Elizabethan drama which is so splendidly illustrated 
in King Henry the Fifth. Good elocution was indispen- 
sable, as may be gathered from Hamlet's address to the 
players. The greater part of the stage, like the yard, was 
open to the sky. At the back it was partially protected by 
the overhanging roof (the ' Heavens ') of the ' tiring house ' 
(mimorum aedes). This tiring house was in two stories, the 
lower having doors opening on the stage; above was a 
balcony-like arrangement that served either as an upper 
stage, or as a kind of private box for actors and musicians, 
or, it might be, for distinguished visitors. From the upper 
story of the tiring house a trumpeter announced the begin- 
ning of a performance, and while the performance lasted a 
flag bearing the sign of the theatre floated from the roof. 

VIII. HISTORICAL CONNECTIONS 

The genealogical tables given on the following pages, 
xxxii— xxxv, indicate the inter-relation of the more important 
historical characters, English and French, in King Henry 
the Fifth, and will show in what other plays of Shakespeare 
they, their ancestors, or their descendants, are either men- 
tioned or appear as dramatis personam. 

With regard to both English and French history Shake- 
speare is in all essentials faithful to Holinshed's Chronicles. 




The Second Globe Theatre 

From Visscher's Map of London, 1616 



HISTORICAL 
I. 















Edward III 












'327-1377 












H 5 


1 

Edward 


Williair 


. 1 
1 Lionel 




Philippa ~ (3) Catharine Swynford — 


the Black 


d- 1335 


Duke of Clar- 




Roet (?) 






Prince 




ence 
d. 1369 




Geoffrey 






Duke of 


1 




Aquitaine 




= 




Chaucer (?) 


Thomas Ralph Joan 


d. 1376 




(1) Elizabeth 




1 


Beaufort Neville = Beaufort 


H 5 




de Burgh 




Thomas 


Earl of Earl of 






1 




Chaucer 


Dorset West- 


Joan of 




Philippa 




= 


Duke of more- 


Kent (I) the 




=3 




Matilda 


Exeter land 


Fair Maid 




Edmund 




Burghersh 


d. 1425 d. 1425 


1 




Mortimer 


Michael 






H 5 H4 12 H 5 


RICHARD II 




Earl of 


de la Pole 








I377-I399 




March 


Earl of 








R2 




1 


Suffolk 








= 




Anne Morti- 


d. 1415 








(1) Anne of 




mer 


H 5 








Bohemia 




(See descend- 


1 








(2) Isabella 




ants of Ed- 


(3) William 








of France 




mund Langley 


de la Pole 


=z Alice 


= (2) Thomas Montague 


R2 




Duke of York) 


Earl of 

Suffolk 
exc. 1450 




Earl of Salisbury 
d. 1428 
H 5 








H6 1 











Signs and Abbreviations in 
the Tables 



Charles de la Bret 

Constable of France 

k.A. 1415 

H 5 



I = direct descent from 
== married to 
<>«> = brother or sister 
oLj = brother or sister of the half blood 

d. = died 
exc.= executed 

k.= killed 
k.A = killed at Agincourt 

R2 = one of the dramatis persona? in Richard II 
R3= do. Richard III 

H4 1= do. 1 Henry IV 

H 4 2 = do. 2 Henry IV 

H6!= do. 1 Henry VI 

H6 2 = do. 2 Henry VI 

H6 3 = do. 3 Henry VI 

H5= do. Henry V 

KJ= do. King John 

Italics indicate that the person is only mentioned in 
the play. Numerals in parentheses before a name 
indicate a first, second, or third marriage. Nu- 
merals after a king's reign indicate the dates of 
his reign. 

xxxii 



(2) Owen Tudor = 

Edmund Tudor 

Henry Tudor Earl of Richmond 
HENRY VII TUDOR 

1485-1509 
H6 3 R 3 



CONNECTIONS 

ENGLISH 

= Philippa of Hainault 
I d. 1369 



I 
John of 
Gaunt 

Duke of 

Lancaster 

d. 1399 

R2 

(2) Constance of < 

Castile 

(1) Blanche of 

Lancaster 

Chaucer's 

' Duchesse ' ? 

d. 1369 



Henry 

Bolingbroke 

Earl of Derby 

Duke of Hereford 

Duke of Lancaster 

HENRY IV 

LANCASTER 

1399-1413 

R2 H4 12 

(2) Joan of Navarre 

d. 1437 
(1) Mary de Bohun 

d. 1394 



Edmund Langley : 

Duke of York 

d. 1402 

R2 



> (1) Isabella of 
Castile, d. 1393 



:( 2 ) Joan of Kent (II) 

Duchess of York 

R2 

(3) Henry, 3 Baron 

Scrope of Masham 

Lord Scroop 

exc. 1415 

H 5 



Thomas 

Duke of Gloucester 

d. 1397 



I 

Edward 

Earl of 

Rutland 

Duke of 

AUMERLE 

Duke of 

York 

k.A. 1415 

R2 H 5 



I 

Richard 

Earl of 

Cambridge 

exc. 1415 

H_5 

Anne 
Mortimer 

I 

Richard 

Plantagenet 

Duke of 

York 

d. 1460 

H6 123 

1 



Constance 

Thomas 

Despenser 

d. 1400 

Isabella 

Richard 

Beauchamp 

Earl of 

Warwick 

d. 1439 

H5 



EDWARD IV 

1461-1483 
R 3 H6 23 

Elisabeth 
R3 



Edmund 

Earl of 

Rutland 

H6 3 



George 

Duke of 

Clarence 

d. 1479 

H6 3 R3 



I 
RICHARD III 

1483-1485 
H6 23 R 3 



I 
Edward of Wales 
EDWARD V 
R3 



Richard 

Duke of York 
R3 



Henry of 
Monmouth • 
' Prince Hal' 
Duke of Lancaster 
HENRY V 
1413-1422 
H4H5 

KATHARINE 
OF FRANCE 

d. 1437 

I s 

HENRY VI 

1422-1471 

H6 123 



T 



Thomas 


John 


Duke of 


Duke of 


Clarence 


Bedford 


k. 1421 


Regent of 


H4 2 H 5 


France 




d- 1435 




H 4 H5 H6 1 



Humphrey 
' Good Duke 
Humphrey ' 

Duke of 
Gloucester 

d. 1447 
H4 1 H5 H6 12 



xxxiv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 









HISTORICAL 








II. 








Louis VIII 








122^5-1226 








KJ 






1 
Philip III = Isabella of Aragon 




Philip 


1 


H5 




IV 






The Fair 

1 




.1 

Louis X 


Isabella 


Philip V 


1 
Charles IV 


1314-1316 


Edward II 
(of England) 

1 
Edward III 


1316-1322 


1322-1328 




(first English 
claimant of 




Charles V 




French crown) 




1364-13 80 




CHARLES VI = 


= Isabella 






1380-1422 


of Bavaria 






H 5 


H 5 




Louis 


Isabella 


KATHARINE 


CHARLES VII 


the Dauphin 


— 


d. 1437 


1422-1461 


d. 1415 


(1) RICHARD II 


H 5 


H6 1 


H 5 


(of England) 




1 




R2 


(i)HENRYV 


LOUIS XI 




(2) Charles 


of England 
(second English 


H6 3 




Duke of Orleans 






H5 


claimant of 
French crown) 

H4 1 H42 H5 
(2) Owen Tudor 





The old chronicler is followed even in his slips, as in the 
case of (St.) Louis IX, indicated in the above table. One 
interesting deviation from Holinshed is in representing the 
Dauphin as present at Agincourt. " Probably Shakespeare 
felt that as Henry represented the solid qualities of a true 



INTRODUCTION 



XXXV 



CONNECTIONS 



FRENCH 



= Blanche of Castile 

I 

(St.) Louis IX = Margaret of Provence 
H5* 1 " 



Charles of Valois 
i Duke of Alencon 



Philip VI 
1328-1350 

John II 

1350-1364 



Charles II 
2 Duke of Alencon 



Charles III Peter 

3 Duke of Alencon 4 Duke of Alencon 

1 I 

Philip _ J° HN 



Robert 

I 
Louis (I) 

1 Duke of 
Bourbon 

Peter 

2 Duke of 
Bourbon 

Louis (II) 

3 Duke of 
Bourbon 

I 

John 

4 Duke of 



Duke of Burgundy 



1. r 

Louis John 

Duke of Orleans the Fearless 

Duke of Burgundy 

d. 1419 

H 5 



5 Duke of Alencon Bourbon 

(prisoner 

at Agin- 

court) 

H 5 



k.A. 1415 

1 * 

Anthony 

Duke of Brabant 

k.A. 1415 

H 5 



Charles 

the Poet 

Duke of Orleans 

(prisoner at 

Agincourt) 

H5 



John 
Count of Dunois 
Bastard of Orleans 



* See note on I, ii, jj. 



king, and the Dauphin the mere show and glitter of royalty 
without the substance, it would add to the dramatic effect 
that both should meet on the great day of trial, the one to 
issue from it with glory, the other in reprobation and dis- 
grace." — Moore Smith. 



xxxvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

IX. THE CHARACTERS 

Why Falstaff is not Introduced 

Reference has already been made to the promise in the 
epilogue to King Henry the Fourth that Sir John would be 
in the continuation of the story. While FalstafT is the hero 
of The Merry Wives of Windsor, he never appears in King 
Henry the Fifth. Probably when Shakespeare went to plan- 
ning the drama, he saw the impracticability of making any- 
thing more out of him, while there was at least some danger 
lest the part should degenerate into clap-trap. The very 
fact of such a promise being made might well imply a pur- 
pose rather too theatrical for the just rights of truth and art. 

Falstaff's dramatic office and mission were clearly at an 
end when his connection with Prince Henry was broken 
off, one of the obvious designs of the character being to 
explain the prince's wild and riotous courses. Falstaff 
must have had so much of manhood in him as to love the 
prince, else he were too bad a man for the prince to be 
with ; and when he was so sternly cast off, the grief of this 
wound must in all reason have sadly palsied his sport-mak- 
ing powers. To have continued him with his wits shattered 
or crippled, had been flagrant injustice to him; to have 
continued him with his wits sound and in good trim, had 
been something unjust to the prince. 

The dramatist did well to keep Falstaff in retirement, 
where, though his once matchless powers no longer give 
us pleasure, the report of his sufferings gently touches our 
pity and recovers him to our human sympathies. When 
at last the Hostess says, " The king has kill'd his heart," 



INTRODUCTION xxxvii 

what a volume of redeeming matter is suggested concerning 
him ! For the first time we begin to respect him as a man, 
because we see that he has a heart as well as a brain, and 
that his heart is big and strong enough to outwrestle his 
profligacy and give death the advantage of him. " The king 
has kill'd his heart." These six monosyllables prepare for 
Mrs. Quickly's account of his death, one of the supreme 
things in literature for sheer simplicity and that humor which 
is of the essence of pity. With Bardolph's " Would I were 
with him, wheresome'er he is, either in heaven or in hell ! " 
the characterization of FalstafT is complete. The sympa- 
thetic words of the dissolute hanger-on are a fit epitaph 
for the great character-creation in broad human comedy. 

The Comic Characters 

bardolph, nym, the boy 

The comic portions of King Henry the Fifth give fresh 
illustration of Shakespeare's versatility and range of genius. 
There is indeed nothing here that comes up to the scenes 
at Eastcheap in King Henry the Fourth : so much is im- 
plied in the absence of Falstaff, for nothing else in rich 
comedy could equal that delineation. But Hostess Quickly 
reappears as Mrs. Pistol, the same character but running 
into an amusing variety of development \ the swaggering 
Pistol is also the same as before, only in a somewhat more 
efflorescent stage, ranting out with greater gust than ever 
the picked-up fustian of the bear-garden and the play- 
house. Bardolph, too, with his "face all bubukles, and 
whelks, and knobs, and flames o' fire," but now advanced 
in rank and carrying a sense of higher importance. With 



xxxviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

these we have an altogether original addition in Corporal 
Nym, a delineation of low character in Shakespeare's most 
realistic style, with a vein of humor so lifelike as to seem 
a literal transcript from fact, while the native vulgarity of 
the man is kept from being disgusting by the freshness and 
spirit with which his characteristic traits are delineated. 

These three good-for-nothing profligates are a fitting ex- 
ample of the human refuse and scum which lately gravi- 
tated round Sir John, and they serve the double purpose 
of carrying into the new scenes the memory of the king's 
former associations and of evincing the king's present 
severity and rectitude of discipline. They thus help to 
bridge over the chasm, which might otherwise appear some- 
thing too abrupt, between what the hero was as Prince of 
Wales and what he is as King of England. Their presence 
shows him acting out the purpose which he avowed when 
he first appears in Shakespeare, of imitating the sun who 
causes himself to be more wondered at 

By breaking through the foul and ugly mists 
Of vapours that did seem to strangle him. 

[i Henry IV, I, ii, 225-226.] 

That some such clouds of vileness exhaled from the old 
haunts of his discarded life should still hang about his path 
was natural in the course of things and may be set down as 
a judicious point in the drama. 

The Boy who figures as servant to " these three swash- 
ers " is probably the page to Falstaff in the earlier play. His 
arch and almost unconscious shrewdness of remark was 
even there a taking feature, and it encouraged the thought 
of his having enough healthy keenness of perception to 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

ward off the taints and corruptions that beset him. He 
now translates the follies and vices of his employers into 
apt themes of sagacious and witty reflection, touching at 
every point the very pith of their distinctive features. The 
mixture of penetration and simplicity with which he moral- 
izes their pretentious nothings is very charming. Thus Pis- 
tol's turbulent vapor ings draw from him the sage remark, " I 
did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart : 
but the saying is true, ' The empty vessel makes the greatest 
sound.' Bardolph and Nym had ten times more valour than 
this roaring devil i' the old play . . . and they are both hang'd ; 
and so would this be, if he durst steal any thing adventur- 
ously " (IV, iv, 65-71). Shakespeare specially delights in 
thus endowing his children and young people with a kind 
of unsophisticated shrewdness, the free outcome of a native 
soundness that enables them to walk unhurt amid the con- 
tagions of bad example; their own minds being kept pure, 
and even furthered in the course of manhood, by an instinc- 
tive oppugnance to the shams and meannesses which beset 
their path. 

FLUELLEN, JAMY, MACMORRIS 

But the comic life of the drama is mainly centered in a 
very different group of persons. Fluellen, Jamy, and Mac- 
morris strike out an entirely fresh and original vein of en- 
tertainment, and these, together with Bates and Williams, 
aptly represent the practical, working soldiership of the 
king's army. The conceited and loquacious Welshman, the 
tenacious and argumentative Scotchman, the hot and im- 
pulsive Irishman, representatives of nations with whom the 
English have lately been at war, serve the further purpose of 



xl THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

displaying how smoothly* the recent national enmities have 
been reconciled and all the parties drawn into harmonious 
cooperation by the king's inspiring nobleness of character 
and the catching enthusiasm of his enterprise. All three 
are as brave as lions, thoroughly devoted to the cause and 
mutually emulous of doing good service, each entering into 
the work with as much heartiness as if his own nation were 
at the head of the undertaking. All of them, too, are com- 
pletely possessed with the spirit of the occasion, where 
" honour's thought reigns solely in the breast of every man," 
and as there is no swerving from the line of earnest, warlike 
purpose in quest of any sport or pastime, the amusement we 
have of them results purely from the spontaneous working- 
out of their innate peculiarities. While making us laugh, 
they at the same time win our respect, their very oddities 
serving to set off their substantial manliness. 

Fluellen is pedantic, pragmatical, and somewhat queru- 
lous, but withal a thoroughly honest and valiant soul. He 
loves to hear himself discourse touching " the true discipline 
of the wars," and about " Alexander the Pig," and how " For- 
tune is painted blind, with a muffler afore his eyes, to signify 
to you that Fortune is blind ; and she is painted also with a 
wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she is 
turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation " (III, 
vi, 29-33) : but then he is also prompt to own that " Captain 
Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentleman . . . and of great 
expedition and knowledge in th' aunchient wars . . . : by 
Cheshu, he will maintain his argument as well as any military 
man in the world, in the disciplines of the pristine wars of 
the Romans" (III, ii, 73-78). He is indeed rather easily 
gulled into thinking Pistol a hero, on hearing him utter " as 



INTRODUCTION xli 

prave words at the pridge as you shall see in a summer's 
day " (III, vi, 62-63). This lapse, however, is amply squared 
when he cudgels the swagger out of the " counterfeit rascal " 
and persuades him to eat the leek, and then makes him 
accept a groat to " heal his proken pate." This is one of 
Shakespeare's raciest and most spirited comic scenes. Note- 
worthy is his cool discretion in putting up with the mouth- 
ing braggart's insolence, because the time and place did not 
properly allow his resenting it on the spot; but when he 
calls on him to " eat his victuals," and gives him the cudgel 
for sauce to it, and tells him, " You call'd me yesterday 
mountain-squire, but I will make you to-day a squire of low 
degree," there is no mistaking the timber he is made of. 

When Fluellen sharply reproves one of his superior 
officers for loud talking in the camp at night by saying, 
" If you would take the pains but to examine the wars 
of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, that 
there is no tiddle taddle nor pibble pabble in Pompey's 
camp," the king overhears the reproof and hits the white 
of his character when he says to himself, 

Though it appear a little out of fashion, 

There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 

[IV, i, 82-83.] 

But perhaps the man's most characteristic passage is in his 
plain and downright style of speech to the king himself, 
when the king, referring to the place of his own birth, which 
was in Wales, addresses him as "good my countryman," 
and Fluellen replies, " I am your majesty's countryman, I 
care not who know it ; I will confess it to all the 'orld : I 
need not to be asham'd of your majesty, prais'd be God, 



xlii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

so long as your majesty is an honest man" (IV, vii, 105- 
108). On the whole, Fluellen is a capital instance of 
Shakespeare's consideration for the rights of manhood 
irrespective of rank or title or any adventitious regards. 
Though a very subordinate person in the drama, there is 
more wealth of genius shown in the delineation of him than 
in that of any other except the king. 

The King 

The delineation of the king has something of peculiar 
interest from its personal relation to the author. It em- 
bodies Shakespeare's ethics of character. Here, for once, 
he relaxes his strictness of dramatic self-reserve and lets us 
directly into his own conception of what is good and noble. 
In his other portraits we have the art and genius of the 
poet ; here, along with this, are also reflected the conscience 
and the heart of the man. 

Henry the Fifth as delineated in the two parts of King 
Henry the Fourth and in King Henry the Fifth is the most 
complex and many-sided of all Shakespeare's heroes with 
the one exception of Hamlet, if indeed even Hamlet ought 
to be excepted. In this play which bears his name he is great 
alike in thought, in purpose, and in performance; all the 
parts of his character drawing together perfectly, as if there 
were no foothold for distraction among them. Truth, sweet- 
ness, and terror build in him equally. He loves the plain 
presence of natural and homely characters where all is genu- 
ine, forthright, and sincere. Even in his sternest actions as 
king he shows, he cannot help showing, the motions of a 
brotherly heart ; there is a certain grace and suavity in his 
very commands causing them to be felt as benedictions. To 



INTRODUCTION xliii 

be frank, open, and affable with all sorts of persons, so as 
to call their very hearts into their mouths and move them 
to be free, plain-spoken, and simple in his company, as 
losing the sense of inferior rank in an equality of manhood, 
— all this is both an impulse of nature and a rule of judg- 
ment with him. Nothing contents him short of getting heart 
to heart with those about or beneath him. All official forms, 
all the facings of pride, that stand in the way of this, he 
breaks through, but with so much natural dignity and ease 
that those who see it are scarcely sensible of it ; they feel 
a peculiar graciousness in him, but know not why. In his 
practical sense of things, as well as in his theory, inward 
merit is the only basis of kingly right and rule. He is so 
much at home in this thought that he never emphasizes it 
at all. He understands full well that such merit, where it 
really lives, will best make its way when left to itself, and 
that any boasting or putting on airs about it can only betray 
a lack of it. 

The character of this crowned gentleman stands together 
in that native harmony and beauty which is most adorned 
in being unadorned. His whole behavior appears to be 
governed by an instinctive sense of this. There is no simu- 
lation, no disguise, no study for appearances about him ; 
all got-up dignities, anything put on for effect, whatever 
savors in the least of sham or shoddy, is his aversion ; and 
the higher the place where it is used, the more he feels it 
to be out of place. His supreme delight is to seem just 
what he is, and to be just what he seems. In other words, 
he has a steadfast, living, operative faith in the plenipotence 
of truth ; he wants nothing better ; he scorns to rely on any- 
thing less ; this is the soul of all his thoughts and designs. 



xliv THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The sense of any discrepancy between his inward and his 
outward parts would be a torment to him. Hence his un- 
affected heartiness in word and deed. What he cannot en- 
ter into with perfect wholeness and integrity of mind, he 
shrinks from having anything to do with. In all that flows 
from him we feel the working of a heart so full that it can- 
not choose but overflow. 

This explains what are deemed the looser parts of his 
conduct while Prince of Wales. For his character, through 
all its varieties of transpiration in the three plays where he 
figures, is perfectly coherent and of a piece. In the air 
of the court there was something, he hardly knew what, that 
cut against his grain ; he could not take to it. His father 
was indeed acting a noble part, and was acting it nobly ; at 
least the prince thought so, but he could not but feel that 
his father was acting a part. Dissimulation, artifice, official 
fiction, attentiveness to show, and all that course of dealing 
where less is meant than meets the ear, were too much the 
style and habit of the place ; policy was the method, astute- 
ness the force, of the royal counsels, and plain truth was 
not deep enough for one who held it so much his interest 
to hoodwink the time. Even the virtue there cherished was 
in great part a made-up surface virtue ; at the best there 
was a spice of disingenuousness in it. In short, the whole 
administration of the state manifestly took its shape and 
tone from the craft of the king, not from the heart of the man. 

To the prince's keen eye all this was evident, to his 
healthy feelings it was offensive ; he craved the fellowship 
of something more fresh and genuine, and was glad to get 
away from it and play with simpler and honester natures, 
where he could at least be frank and true and where his 



INTRODUCTION xlv 

spirit might run out in natural freedom. " Covering discre- 
tion with a coat of folly " was better in his sense of things 
than to have his native sensibilities smothered under such 
a varnish of solemn plausibility and factitious constraint. 
Even his inborn rectitude found a more congenial climate 
where no virtue at all was professed, and where its claims 
were frankly sported off, than where there was so much of 
sinister craft and indirection mixed up with it ; the reckless 
and spontaneous outpourings of moral looseness, the haunts 
of open-faced profligacy, so they had some sparkling of wit 
and raciness of humor in them, were more to his taste than 
the courts of refined hypocrisy and dissimulation, where 
politicians played at hide and seek with truth and tied up 
their schemes with shreds of Holy Writ. 

His Moral Complexion 

The character of Shakespeare's Henry the Fifth may 
almost be said to consist of piety, honesty, and modesty. 
He embodies these qualities in their simplest and purest 
form ; he is honest and modest in his piety, pious and 
modest in his honesty. 

In one of his kingliest moments he says : " If it be a sin 
to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive " (IV, 
iii, 28-29). But honor is with him in the highest sense a 
social conscience and the rightful basis of self-respect; he 
deems it a good chiefly as it makes a man clean and strong 
within, and not as it dwells in the fickle breath of others. 
As for that conventional figment which small souls make 
so much ado about, he cares little for it, knowing that it is 
often got without merit, and lost without deserving. Thus 
the honor he covets is really to deserve the good thoughts, 



xlvi THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

of men. The inward sense of such desert is enough. If 
what is fairly his due in that kind be withheld by them, the 
loss is theirs, not his. In his clear rectitude and piety of 
purpose he will not go to war with France till he believes 
religiously and in his conscience that he has a sacred right 
to the French crown, and that it would be a sin against the 
divinely-appointed order of human society not to prosecute 
that claim. This point settled, he goes about the task as if 
his honor and salvation hung upon it. 

His Frank Human-Heartedness 

With all King Henry's stress of warlike ardor and in- 
tentness, his mind full of cares, thoughtful, provident, self- 
mastered as he is, his old frank and childlike playfulness 
and love of harmless fun still cling to him and mingle 
genially in his working earnestness. Even in his gravest 
passages, with but one or two exceptions, as in his address 
to the conspirant lords, there is a dash of jocose humor 
that is charmingly reminiscent of his most jovial and sport- 
ive hours. Perhaps the fairest display of his whole varied 
make-up is in the night before the battle of Agincourt, 
when, wrapping himself in a borrowed cloak, he goes un- 
recognized about the camp, allaying the scruples, cheering 
the hearts, and bracing the courage of his men. His free 
and kindly nature is so unsubdued and fresh that he craves 
to be a man among his soldiers and talk familiarly with 
them face to face, which he knows could not be if he ap- 
peared among them as their king. Here too his love of plain, 
unvarnished truth asserts itself : he does not attempt to dis- 
guise from himself or from them the huge perils of their 
, situation ; he owns that the odds are fearfully against them. 



INTRODUCTION xlvii 

He trusts that all this instead of appalling their hearts will 
rather serve, as indeed it does, to knit up their energies 
to a more resolute and strenuous effort. The greater the 
danger they are in, the greater should their courage be, — 
that is the principle he acts upon, and he has faith that 
they will act upon it too. He would have them know the 
worst of their condition, because he doubts not that they 
will be all the surer to meet it like men, dying gloriously, 
if die they must ; and he so frames his speech that it works 
in them as an inspiration to that effect. In the speeches 
of Chorus, Shakespeare unbosoms himself in regard to the 
great national hero. His own personal sense of the king's 
relations to his soldiers is unequivocally pronounced in the 
dithyrambic prologue to the fourth act. 

For forth he goes and visits all his host, 

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile, 

And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. 

Upon his royal face there is no note 

How dread an army hath enrounded him ; 

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour 

Unto the weary and all-watched night, 

But freshly looks and over-bears attaint 

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty; 

That every wretch, pining and pale before, 

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks : 

A largess universal like the sun 

His liberal eye doth give to every one, 

Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all 

Behold, as may unworthiness define, 

A little touch of Harry in the night. [Lines 32-47.] 

The deep seriousness of the occasion does not repress his 
native jocularity of spirit. John Bates and Michael Williams, 
whose hearts are indeed braver and better than their words, 



xlviii THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

speak out their doubts and fears with all plainness, and he 
falls at once into a strain of grave and apt discourse that 
satisfies their minds which have been rendered somewhat 
querulous by the plight they are in ; and when the blunt and 
downright Williams pushes his freedom into something of 
sauciness, he meets it with bland good humor and melts 
out the man's crustiness by contriving in his old style a 
practical joke, so that we have a right taste of the sportive 
prince in the most trying and anxious passage of the king. 
In the same spirit afterwards when the jest is coming to the 
upshot, as it is likely to breed some bloody work, he takes 
care that no harm shall be done. He turns it into an occa- 
sion for letting the men know whom they had talked so 
freely with. He has himself invited their freedom of speech, 
because in his full-souled frankness of nature he really loves 
to be inward with them, and to taste the honest utterance 
of their minds ; and when upon that disclosure Williams 
still uses his former plainness, he likes him the better for it, 
and winds up the jest by rewarding his supposed offence 
with a glove full of crowns. Such a stroke of genuine mag- 
nanimity cannot fail to secure the undivided empire of 
his soldiers' hearts. Henceforth they will make nothing of 
dying for such a noble fellow, whose wish clearly is not to 
overawe them by any studied dignity, but to reign within 
them by his manliness of soul and by making them feel 
that he is their best friend. 

His Wooing of Katharine 

The same merry, frolicsome humor comes out again in 
his wooing of the Princess Katharine. It is a real holiday 
of the spirits with him ; his mouth overruns with play ; he 



INTRODUCTION xlix 

cracks jokes upon his own person and his speaking of 
French, and sweetens his way to the lady's heart by genial 
frankness and simplicity of manner. With the open and 
true-hearted pleasantry of a child, he laughs through his 
courtship. All the while we feel a deep undercurrent of 
seriousness beneath his laughter, and there is to our sense 
no lapse from dignity in his behavior, because nothing is 
really more dignified than a man forgetting his dignity in 
the overflowings of a right noble and generous heart. The 
king loves men who are better than their words, and it is 
his nature to be better than he speaks : this is the artless 
disguise of modesty through which true goodness has its 
most effective disclosure. Notwithstanding the hero's sport- 
ive mood in the wooing, when he comes in the same scene 
to deal with the terms of peace his mood is very different : 
then he purposely forgot the king in the man ; now he reso- 
lutely forgets the man in the king, and will not budge a 
hair from the demands which he holds to be the right of 
his people. The dignity of his person he freely leaves to 
take care of itself ; the dignity of his state is to him a sacred 
thing and he will sooner die than compromise it a jot. 

X. GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS 

As already indicated, King Henry the Fifth is inferior 
to many of Shakespeare's plays in respect of proper dra- 
matic interest and effect. The historic material he had 
to work with was not altogether fitted for dramatic use ; it 
gave too little scope for those developments of character 
and passion wherein the interest of the serious drama mainly 
consists. As Schlegel remarks, " War is an epic rather than 



1 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

a dramatic subject : to yield the right interest for the stage, 
it must be the means whereby something else is accom- 
plished, and not the last aim and substance of the whole." 
Perhaps it was a sense of this unfitness of the matter for 
dramatic use that led Shakespeare to fuse the dramatic and 
epic elements with that glowing lyricism which is perhaps 
the chief characteristic of King Henry the Fifth as com- 
pared with the other historical plays. The effect is that of 
a national song of triumph. Hence comes it that the play 
is so thoroughly charged with the spirit and poetry of a 
sort of jubilant patriotism, of which King Henry himself is 
probably the most eloquent impersonation ever delineated. 
Viewed in this light, the work is as perfect in its way as 
anything Shakespeare achieved. Nowhere can be found 
more vigorous, sonorous, stirring poetry; nothing could 
surpass the speeches of Chorus in vividness of imagery or 
in potency to kindle and electrify the hearer's imagina- 
tive forces. The king's speeches to his soldiers at Har- 
fleur (III, i, 1-34) and to the governor and citizens of the 
town (III, iii, 1-43), his reflections upon ceremony (IV, i, 
228-272), his speech to Westmoreland just before the 
battle of Agincourt (IV, iii, 18-67), Exeter's description 
of the deaths of York and of Suffolk (IV, vi, 7-32), and 
Burgundy's speech in favor of peace (V, ii, 23-67) are 
examples of that eloquence which creative inspiration and 
worthy emotion raise far above rhetorical declamation. 



AUTHORITIES 

(With the more important abbreviations used in the notes) 

Qi = First Quarto, 1600. 
Q 2 = Second Quarto, 1602. 
Q3 = Third Quarto, 1608. 
Qq = the three Quartos, 1600 to 1608. 
Fx = First Folio, 1623. 
F 2 = Second Folio, 1632. 
F 3 = Third Folio, 1664. 
F 4 = Fourth Folio, 1685. 
Ff = all the seventeenth century Folios. 
Rowe = Rowe's editions, 1709, 17 14. 
Pope = Pope's editions, 1723, 1728. 
Theobald = Theobald's editions, 1733, 1740. 
Hanmer = Hanmer's edition, 1744. 
Johnson = Johnson's edition, 1765. 
Capell = Capell's edition, 1768. 
Malone = Malone's edition, 1790. 
Steevens = Steevens's edition, 1793. 

Globe = Globe edition (Clark and Wright), 1864. 
Dyce = Dyce's (third) edition, 1875. 
Delius = Delius's (fifth) edition, 1882. 
Camb = Cambridge (third) edition (W. A. Wright), 1891. 

Clar = Clarendon Press edition (W. A. Wright). 
Daniel = P. A. Daniel and B. Nicholson's Parallel Texts. 
Stone = W. G. Stone's (Boswell-Stone) edition. 
Evans = H. A. Evans's Arden edition, Methuen & Co. 
Verity = A. W. Verity's Pitt Press edition. 
Moore Smith = G. C. Moore Smith's Warwick edition. 
Herford = C. H. Herford's Eversley edition. 
Abbott = E. A. Abbott's A Shakespearian Grammar. 
Cotgrave = Cotgrave's Dictionarie of the French and English 

Tongues, 161 1. 
Schmidt = Schmidt's Shakespeare Lexicon. 
Skeat = Skeat's An Etymological Dictionary. 
Murray = A New English Dictionary {The Oxford Dictionary^- 
Century = The Century Dictionary. 
Holinshed = Holinshed's Chronicles (second edition), 1586- 1587. 

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THE LIFE OF 
KING HENRY THE FIFTH 



DRAMATIS PERSON^ 1 



King Henry the Fifth. 2 

Duke of Glouces-^ , 

i brothers to 

_ TER ' „ f the King. 

Duke of Bedford,J 

Duke of Exeter, uncle to the 
King. 

Duke of York, cousin to the 
King. 

Earls of Salisbury, West- 
moreland, and Warwick. 

Archbishop of Canterbury. 

Bishop of Ely. 

Earl of Cambridge. 

Lord Scroop. 

Sir Thomas Grey. 

Sir Thomas Erpingham, 
Gower, Fluellen, Macmor- 
ris, Jamy, officers in King 
Henry's army. 

Bates, Court, Williams, sol- 
diers in the same. 

Pistol, Nym, Bardolph. 

Boy. 

A Herald. 



Charles the Sixth, King of 
France. 

Lewis, the Dauphin. 

Dukes of Burgundy, Orleans, 
and Bourbon. 

The Constable of France. 

Rambures and Grandpre, 
French Lords. 

Governor of Harfleur. 

Montjoy, a French Herald. 

Ambassadors to the King of Eng- 
land. 

Isabel, Queen of France. 
Katharine, daughter to Charles 

and Isabel. 
Alice, a lady attending on her. 
Hostess of a tavern in Eastcheap, 

formerly Mistress Quickly, and 

now married to Pistol. 

Lords, Ladies, Officers, Soldiers, 
Citizens, Messengers, and At- 
tendants. 

Chorus. 



Scene: England; afterwards France. 



1 Rowe was the first to give a list of Dramatis Personam. Rowe's list was 
corrected by Capell, and this corrected list has been substantially followed 
by all subsequent editors. 

2 Notes on the historical relations of the Dramatis Personam are given 
when each character is introduced into the play. 



PROLOGUE 



Enter Chorus 

Chorus. O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend 
The brightest heaven of invention, 
A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, 
And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! 
Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, 5 

Assume the port of Mars ; and at his heels, 
Leash'd in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire 
Crouch for employment. But pardon, gentles all, 

PROLOGUE. Enter Chorus Prologue, lines 1-34, omitted in 

I Enter Prologue Ff. Qq. 

Enter Chorus. The Folios have ' Enter Prologue,' but in line 32 
is " Admit me Chorus to this History." The other prologues have 
' Enter Chorus.' The Chorus is a significant bequest from the Greek 
and the Roman drama and appears often in the early Elizabethan 
plays, usually indicating Senecan influence, as in Gorbodttc. His chief 
functions in the Elizabethan drama are : (1) to interpret the subject 
of the play, or of the ' dumb-show ' ; (2) to stimulate the imagination 
of the audience (cf. lines 18, 23) ; and (3) to bridge over gaps of time 
between the acts by narrating important events (cf. lines 29-31). 

1. The invocation to the Muse strikes the epic key-note of the 
play, the interest of which is less dramatic than epic. 

2. invention. The termination -ion here is dissyllabic. Cf. 'mil- 
lion,' line 16 ; ' question,' I, i, 5. 

7. The image is of three eager hounds held back with a leash or 
strap till the huntsman sees that the time has come for letting them 
fly at the game. Cf. Julius Cesar, III, i, 273. In Holinshed is a 

3 



4 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 

The flat unraised spirits that hath dar'd 

On this unworthy scaffold to bring forth 10 

So great an object : can this cockpit hold 

The vasty fields of France ? or may we cram 

Within this wooden O the very casques 

That did affright the air at Agincourt? 

O, pardon ! since a crooked figure may 15 

Attest in little place a million ; 

And let us, ciphers to this great accompt, 

On your imaginary forces work. 

Suppose within the girdle of these walls 

9. hath Ff I have Staunton Globe Camb. 12. fields Fi | field F2F3F4. 

speech in which Henry V is made to say that " the goddesse of 
battell, called Bellona, had three handmaidens, ever of necessitie 
attending upon her, as blood, fire, and famine." 

9. For a discussion of the relative with a singular verb after a 
plural antecedent, see Abbott, § 247. 

11. cockpit. The small circular Elizabethan theatre was not unlike 
the little inclosed areas used for the popular sport of cock-fighting. 
One well-known theatre was actually called the Cockpit. The space 
immediately in front of and around the stage was early called the 
'pit,' and as it had neither floor nor benches, those who stood there 
were nicknamed 'groundlings.' Cf. Hamlet, III, ii, 12. 

13. These allusions to the Elizabethan theatre are intensely inter- 
esting. ' This wooden O ' is probably either the Curtain, or the first 
Globe, built in 1599. ' O ' is used to describe the earth in Antony 
and Cleopatra, V, ii, 81. Cf. A Midsum?ner Night's Dream, III, ii, 
188. — the very: the actual. Malone interprets: " even the casques, 
or helmets, much less the men by whom they were worn." 

15-17. Cf . The Winter's Tale, I, ii, 6-9. — accompt : account. 

18. imaginary forces : powers of imagination. Cf. Sonnets, xxvii,9. 
Shakespeare often uses the passive form with the active sense. 
See Abbott, § 3. In line 25 ' imaginary ' has the passive, the modern, 
sense. 



prologue KING HENRY THE FIFTH 5 

Are now conmVd two mighty monarchies, 20 

Whose high upreared and abutting fronts 

The perilous narrow ocean parts asunder : 

Piece out our imperfections with your thoughts ; 

Into a thousand parts divide one man, 

And make imaginary puissance; 25 

Think, when we talk of horses, that you see them . 

Printing their proud hoofs i' the receiving earth ; 

For 't is your thoughts that now must deck our kings, 

Carry them here and there ; jumping o'er times, 

Turning th' accomplishment of many years 30 

Into an hour-glass : for the which supply, 

Admit me Chorus to this history ; 

Who, prologue-like, your humble patience pray, 

Gently to hear, kindly to judge, our play. \_Exit\ 

21. high upreared Pope Globe | high, vpreared F1F2. 

22. perilous narrow ocean. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, III, i, 4. 

25. puissance: armed force. A trisyllable here and in II, ii, 190. 

29-31. With " this frank declaration by Shakespeare that the 
so-called dramatic Unities of Time and Place will be ignored " 
(A. W. Verity), cf. Ben jonson's equally frank declaration, in the 
Prologue to Every Man in His Hitmonr (added to the play after 
1601), that he will observe them strictly: 

You will be pleas'd to see 
One such, to-day, as other playes should be. 
Where neither Chorus waftes you ore the seas ; 
Nor creaking throne comes downe, the boyes to please ; 
Nor nimble squibbe is seene, to make afeard 
The gentlewomen. 



ACT I 

Scene I. London. An ante-chamber in the 
King' 's palace 

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
Bishop of Ely 

Canterbury. My lord, I '11 tell you ; that self bill is urg'd 
Which in th' eleventh year of the last king's reign 
Was like, and had indeed against us pass'd, 
But that the scambling and unquiet time 
Did push it out of farther question. 5 

Ely. But how, my lord, shall we resist it now? 

ACT I. Scene I I Actus Pri- Enter the Archbishop . . . Ely 

mus. Sccena Prima Ff | Qq omit Globe | Enter the two Bishops of 

this scene. — London. An . . .palace Canterbury and Ely F1F2 I Enter the 

Globe I Ff omit. Bishops of . . . F3F4. 

ACT I. Scene I. In the Folios the play is divided into acts, but 
not into scenes, though Sccena Prima is printed after Actus Primtis. 
Pope was the first editor to divide the acts into scenes. Actus Pri- 
mus of the Folios includes Act I and Act II in this edition. 

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry Chichele 
(Chicheley), born circa 1362, succeeded Thomas Arundel as Arch- 
bishop in 1414; founded All Souls' College, Oxford; accompanied 
Henry on his second expedition to France , died in 1443. — Bishop 
of Ely. John Fordham, translated from Durham to Ely in 1388, was 
one of the ambassadors to treat of Henry's marriage ; died in 1425. 

1. self : same, selfsame. The old sense. See Abbott, § 20. 

4. scambling: disordered. Used as a noun in V,ii, 197. See Century. 

5. question: consideration. A trisyllable here. Cf. II, iv, 17. 

6 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 7 

Canterbury. It must be thought on. If it pass against us, 
We lose the better half of our possession ; 
For all the temporal lands, which men devout 
By testament have given to the church, 10 

Would they strip from us ; being valued thus : 
As much as would maintain, to the king's honour, 
Full fifteen earls and fifteen hundred knights, 
Six thousand and two hundred good esquires ; 
And, to relief of lazars and weak age, 15 

Of indigent faint souls past corporal toil, 
A hundred almshouses right well supplied ; 
And to the coffers of the king, beside, 
A thousand pounds by th' year : thus runs the bill. 

Ely. This would drink deep. 

Canterbury. 'T would drink the cup and all. 

Ely. But what prevention ? 21 

Canterbury. The king is full of grace and fair regard. 

Ely. And a true lover of the holy church. 

8. lose I loose Fi. — half | halfe 15-16. age, Of Capell | age Of Ff. 

Fi I part F2F3F4. 19. pounds F1F2 | pound F3F4. 

7-19. Holinshed's account of the bill is as follows : 

That a bill exhibited in the parlement . . . that the temporall lands (de- 
uoutlie giuen . . .) should be seized . . . sith the same might suffice to main- 
teine, to the honor of the king . . . fifteen earles, fifteene hundred knights, 
six thousand and two hundred esquiers, and a hundred almesse-houses, for 
reliefe onelie of the poore, impotent, and needie persones ; and the king to 
have cleerelie to his coffers twentie thousand pounds. 

15. lazars : beggars afflicted with disease. See Murray. Cf. Para- 
'dise Lost, XI, 479-480 : " A lazar-house, it seem'd, wherein were laid 
Numbers of all diseas'd." 

23-24. Keightley suggested giving line 23 to Canterbury and line 24 
to Ely, as throughout the dialogue Ely is drawing attention to the 
difficulties of the situation. 



8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE' act i 

Canterbury. The courses of his youth promis'd it not. 
The breath no sooner left his father's body, 
But that his wildness, mortified in him, 26 

Seem'd to die too ; yea, at that very moment, 
Consideration like an angel came, 
And whipp'd th' offending Adam out of him, 
Leaving his body as a paradise, 30 

T' envelop and contain celestial spirits. 
Never was such a sudden scholar made ; 
Never came reformation in a flood, 
With such a heady currance, scouring faults; 
Nor never hydra-headed wilfulness 35 

So soon did lose his seat, and all at once, 
As in this king. 

Ely. We are blessed in the change. 

Canterbury. Hear him but reason in divinity, 
And all-admiring with an inward wish 

You would desire the king were made a prelate ; 40 

Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs, 
You would say it hath been all in all his study; 
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear 
A fearful battle render'd you in music ; 

34. currance Fi | currant F2F3 I current F4. 

34. heady currance : headlong current. The allusion is plainly to 
the cleansing of the Augean stables by Hercules. This was the fifth 
of his " twelve labors " ; the second was the killing of the nine-headed 
Hydra of Lerna, whence the 'hydra-headed' of line 35. 

35. The several heads of the Hydra immediately grew up again as 
often as they were cut off. Cf. 1 Heizry IV, V, iv, 25. So that 
4 hydra-headed wilfulness' is but a strong expression for 'freakish- 
ness ' or 'waywardness,' — the character of one who drifts before 
his whims. 






scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 9 

Turn him to any cause of policy, 45 

The Gordian knot of it he will unloose, 

Familiar as his garter : that, when he speaks, 

The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, 

And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, 

To steal his sweet and honey'd sentences; 50 

So that the art and practic part of life 

Must be the mistress to this theoric : 

Which is a wonder how his grace should glean it, 

Since his addiction was to courses vain ; 

His companies unletter'd, rude, and shallow ; 55 

His hours fill'd up with riots, banquets, sports ; 

And never noted in him any study, 

Any retirement, any sequestration 

From open haunts and popularity. 

50. honey'd | honyed F1F2. 52. this F3F4 I his F1F2. 

48. Cf. the words of Jaques in As You Like It, II, vii, 47-49 : 

I must have liberty 
Withal, as large a charter as the wind, 
To blow on whom I please. 

The air, or the wind, has by nature a charter of exemption from 
restraint, a prescriptive right to blow when and where it will. " The 
wind bloweth where it listeth." 

51-52. practic: practice. — theoric: theory. He must have drawn 
his theory, digested his order and method of thought, from the art 
and practice of life, instead of shaping the latter by the rules and 
measures of the former : which is strange, since he has never been 
seen in the way either of learning the things in question by experi- 
ence, or of digesting the fruits of experience into theory. 

55. companies : companions. The abstract is put for the concrete. 
Cf. A Midsummer Night* s Dream, I, i, 219. 

59. popularity: association with the people. Cf. / Henry IV, III, 
ii, 68-69. * Vulgarity.' — Schmidt. 



IO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Ely. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle, 60 
And wholesome berries thrive and ripen best 
Neighbour'd by fruit of baser quality : 
And so the prince obscur'd his contemplation 
Under the veil of wildness ; which, no doubt, 
Grew like the summer grass, fastest by night, 65 

Unseen, yet crescive in his faculty. 

Canterbury. It must be so ; for miracles are ceas'd ; 
And therefore we must needs admit the means 
How things are perfected. 

Ely. But, my good lord, 

How now for mitigation of this bill 70 

Urg'd by the commons? Doth his majesty 
Incline to it, or no? 

Canterbury. He seems indifferent, 

Or rather swaying more upon our part 
Than cherishing th' exhibiters against us : 

61-62. " Roses and Violets are ever the sweeter and more odor- 
iferous that grow neere under Garlike and Onions, forasmuch as 
they suck and draw all the ill savours of the ground unto them." — 
Montaigne's Essays, III, ix (Florio's Translation, 1603). "Amongst 
strawberries sow here and there some borage-seed, and you shall find 
the strawberries under those leaves far more large than their fellows." 
— Bacon's Sylva Sylvanim, Century V, §441. Cf. Ellacombe's 
Plant- Lore and Garden-Craft of Shakespeare, page 224. 

63-64. In / Henry IV, I, ii, 218-240, Prince Henry deliberately 
proposes this course to himself and gives his reasons. So of Julius 
Caesar it is said that in his earlier years he concealed his tremendous 
energy and power of application under such an exterior of thought- 
less dissipation that he was set down as a mere young trifler not 
worth minding. 

66. crescive : increasing. Cf. 'crescent,' Hamlet, I, iii, 11. — his : its. 

74. cherishing th' exhibiters : supporting the introducers of the 
bill. Cf. Mistress Page's scheme for revenge on Falstaff, The Merry 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH II 

For I have made an offer to his majesty, 75 

Upon our spiritual convocation, 

And in regard of causes now in hand, 

Which I have open'd to his grace at large, 

As touching France, to give a greater sum 

Than ever at one time the clergy yet 80 

Did to his predecessors part withal. 

Ely. How did this offer seem receiv'd, my lord? 

Canterbury. With good acceptance of his majesty : 
Save that there was not time enough to hear, 
As I perceiv'd his grace would fain have done, 85 

The severals and unhidden passages 
Of his true titles to some certain dukedoms, 
And generally to the crown and seat of France, 
Deriv'd from Edward, his great-grandfather. 

Ely. What was th' impediment that broke this off? 90 

Canterbury. The French ambassador upon that instant 
Crav'd audience ; and the hour, I think, is come 
To give him hearing : is it four o'clock? 

Ely. It is. 

Wives of Windsor, II, i, 29-30 : " Why, I '11 exhibit a bill in the par- 
liament for the putting down of men." 

86. severals and unhidden passages : details and clearly established 
channels, or lines of descent. In Troilus and Cressida, I, iii, 180, 
'severals ' is opposed to 'generals'; in The Winter's Tale it means 
'individuals.' Cf. 'all cruels ' in King Lear, III, vii, 65. 

89. Isabella, queen of Edward the Second, and mother of Edward 
the Third, was the daughter of Philip the Fair, of France. She was 
reputed the most beautiful woman in Europe, and was by many 
thought the wickedest. The male succession from her father expired 
in the person of her brother, Charles the Fair. But for the exclu- 
sion of females, the French crown would have properly descended 
to her son. 



12 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Canterbury. Then go we in, to know his embassy ; 95 
Which I could with a ready guess declare, 
Before the Frenchman speak a word of it. 

Ely. I '11 wait upon you, and I long to hear it. \_Exeunt\ 

Scene II. The same. The Presence chamber 

E?iter King Henry, Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, War- 
wick, Westmoreland, and Attendants 

King Henry. Where is my gracious Lord of Canterbury? 
Exeter. Not here in presence. 

King Henry. Send for him, good uncle. 

Westmoreland. Shall we call in th' ambassador, my 
liege? 

Scene II Pope. — The saine . . . Bedford, Clarence, Warwick, West- 

chamber Globe | Ff omit. merland, and Exeter Ff. 

Enter King . . . Attendants Ma- 3. Qq begin the play here. — 

lone I Enter the King, Humfrey, Westmoreland | Exeter Qq. 

Enter King Henry . . . Henry V, eldest son of Henry IV, was 
born in the castle of Monmouth in 1387 ; acceded in 141 3 ; died at 
Vincennes in 1422. — Gloucester. Prince Humphrey, fourth son 
of Henry IV, was born in 1391 ; was created Duke of Gloucester 
in 1 41 4; served through the Agincourt campaign ; after Henry V's 
death became Protector in England; died in 1447. — Bedford. 
Prince John, third son of Henry IV, was created Duke of Bedford 
in 1 41 4; was Lieutenant of England during the Agincourt cam- 
paign ; became Regent of France for Henry VI ; died in 1435. I- 11 
King Henry IV he appears as Prince John of Lancaster. — Exeter. 
Thomas Beaufort, third son of John of Gaunt and Catharine Swyn- 
ford, was created Earl of Dorset in 1412 and Duke of Exeter in 1416. 
He was half-brother to Henry IV, so the king calls him ' uncle ' in 
line 2. — Warwick. Richard de Beauchamp, born in 1381, became 
twelfth Earl of Warwick in 1401 ; was created Earl of Albemarle in 
1422 ; died in 1439. — Westmoreland. Ralph Neville, eighth Baron 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 13 

King Henry. Not yet, my cousin : we would be resolv'd, 
Before we hear him, of some things of weight 5 

That task our thoughts, concerning us and France. 

Enter the Archbishop of Canterbury and the 
Bishop of Ely 

Canterbury. God and his angels guard your sacred 
throne, 
And make you long become it ! 

King Henry. Sure, we thank you. 

My learned lord, we pray you to proceed 
And justly and religiously unfold 10 

Why the law Salique that they have in France 
Or should or should not bar us in our claim ; 
And God forbid, my dear and faithful lord, 
That you should fashion, wrest, or bow your reading, 
Or nicely charge your understanding soul 15 

With opening titles miscreate, whose right 
Suits not in native colours with the truth ; 

7. Enter the Archbishop . . . | ii. that Ff | which Qq. 

Enter two Bishops Ff. 12. bar Ff | stop Qq. 

Neville of Raby, was created Earl of Westmoreland in 1397; died 
in 1425. He married Joan Beaufort, daughter of John of Gaunt and 
half-sister of Henry IV, so the king calls him 'cousin,' I, ii, 4; IV, 
iii, 19. He appears in both parts of King Henry IV. 

4. resolv'd: satisfied, informed. Cf. Julius Ctesar, III, i, 131 ; IV, 
ii, 14. The primary idea is ' set free from perplexity.' 

15. nicely. Usually interpreted here in the sense of c sophistically,' 
but more probably to be understood in the common Middle English 
sense of 'foolishly,' 'unwisely,' and as qualifying 'opening' rather 
than ' charge.' In V, ii, 94, it means ' with insistence upon detail.' 

16. miscreate: spurious. The Latin form of the past participle. 
Cf. 'create ' in II, ii, 31 ; A Midsummer Night* s Dream, V, i, 412. 



14 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

For God doth know how many now in health 

Shall drop their blood in approbation 

Of what your reverence shall incite us to. 20 

Therefore take heed how you impawn our person, 

How you awake our sleeping sword of war ; 

We charge you, in the name of God, take heed : 

For never two such kingdoms did contend 

Without much fall of blood ; whose guiltless drops 25 

Are every one a woe, a sore complaint 

'Gainst him whose wrongs gives edge unto the swords 

That makes such waste in brief mortality. 

Under this conjuration speak, my lord ; 

For we will hear, note, and believe in heart 30 

That what you speak is in your conscience wash'd 

As pure as sin with baptism. 

Canterbury. Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and 
you peers, 
That owe yourselves, your lives, and services 
To this imperial throne. There is no bar 35 

To make against your highness' claim to France 

22. our Ff I the Qq. Swords, That makes F1F2F3 I 

27. wrongs gives Fi | wrong gives Swords ? That makes F4 I sword 

F2F3F4 I wrongs give Malone Globe That makes Capell. 

Delius Camb. 29. Under Ff | After Qq. 
27-28. swords That makes | 

19-20. in approbation Of : in making good. Cf. Cymbeline, I, iv, 134. 

21. impawn : pledge. Cf. 1 Henry IV, IV, iii, 108. 

27. wrongs : wrong-doings. — gives. For third person plural in s, 
so common in the First Folio, see Abbott, § ^^. 

35-40. From Holinshed's account of the Salic Law : 

Herein did he much inveie against the surmised and false fained law 
Salike which the Frenchmen alledge euer against the kings of England in 
barre of their just title to the crowne of France. The verie words of that 
supposed .law are these, In terrain Salicam mulieres ne suceedant, that is to 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 1 5 

But this, which they produce from Pharamond, 

* In terrain Salicam mulieres ne succedant ' : 

1 No woman shall succeed in Salique land ' : 

Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze 40 

To be the realm of France, and Pharamond 

The founder of this law and female bar. 

Yet their own authors faithfully affirm 

That the land Salique is in Germany, 

Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe ; 45 

Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons, 

There left behind and settled certain French ; 

Who, holding in disdain the German women 

For some dishonest manners of their life, 

38. Line omitted in Qq. 45, 52. Elbe Capell | Elme Qq | 

44. is Ff I lies Qq Pope. Elue Ff. 

saie, into the Salike land let not women succeed. Which the French glossers 
expound to be the realme of France, and that this law was made by king 
Pharamond. 

37. This semi-mythical Frankish chief of the early part of the 
fifth century is the hero of one of La Calprenede's romances. 
40. gloze : expound, interpret. Usually in a bad sense. 
43-64. Shakespeare merely versifies the following from Holinshed : 

Whereas yet their owne authors affirme that the land Salike is in Ger- 
manie betweene the riuers of Elbe and Sala ; and that when Charles the great 
had overcome the Saxons, he placed there certeine Frenchmen, which having 
in disdeine the dishonest maners of the Germane women, made a law, that 
the females should not succeed to any inheritance within that land, which at 
this daie is called Meisen, so that, if this be true, this law was not made for 
the realme of France, nor the Frenchmen possessed the land Salike, till foure 
hundred and one and twentie yeares after the death of Pharamond, the sup- 
posed maker of this Salik law, for this Pharamond deceassed in the yeare 426, 
and Charles the great subdued the Saxons, and placed the Frenchmen in 
those parts beyond the river of Sala, in the yeare 805. 

49. dishonest: unchaste. So 'honest' for 'virtuous' in As You 
Like It, I, ii, 41 ; III, iii, 34, and elsewhere. 



16 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Establish'd then this law, to wit, no female 50 

Should be inheritrix in Salique land : 

Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala, 

Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen. 

Then doth it well appear, the Salique law 

Was not devised for the realm of France : 55 

Nor did the French possess the Salique land 

Until four hundred one and twenty years 

After defunction of King Pharamond, 

Idly suppos'd the founder of this law; 

Who died within the year of our redemption 60 

Four hundred twenty-six ; and Charles the Great 

Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French 

Beyond the river Sala, in the year 

Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say, 

King Pepin, which deposed Childeric, 65 

Did, as heir general, being descended 

Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair, 

Make claim and title to the crown of France. 

Hugh Capet also, who usurp'd the crown 

Of Charles the Duke of Lorraine, sole heir male 70 

Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great, 

50. then Ff | there Qq Capell. 54. Then Ff | thus Qq Pope. 

64-77. From Holinshed's account of Pepin and Hugh Capet : 
Moreover, it appeareth by their owne writers that king Pepine, which 
deposed Childerike, claimed the crowne of France, as heire generall, for that 
he was descended of Blithild, daughter to king Clothair the first : Hugh Capet 
also, who usurped the crowne upon Charles Duke of Loraine, the sole heire 
male of the line and stocke of Charles the great, to make his title seeme true, 
and appeare good, though in deed it was starke naught 1, conueied himselfe as 
heire to the ladie Lingard, daughter to king Charlemaine sonne to Lewes the 
emperour, that was son to Charles the great. 

1 absolutely worthless. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 17 

To find his title with some shows of truth, 

Though, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught, 

Convey'd himself as th' heir to th' Lady Lingare, 

Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son 75 

To Lewis the Emperor, and Lewis the son 

Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the tenth, 

Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet, 

Could not keep quiet in his conscience, 

Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied 80 

That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother, 

Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare, 

72. find Ff I fine Qq Pope. — show Qq Capell. 
shows I shewes F1F2 I shews F3F4 | 73. Though Ff | When Qq Capell. 

72. find : furnish, provide. Some editors adopt the Quarto read- 
ing and interpret 'fine ' as ' embellish,' ' dress,' 'make specious.' 

74. Convey'd himself as : fraudulently passed himself off as. The 
expression is from Holinshed. 'Convey' was a slang Elizabethan 
term for ' steal.' Cf. The Merry Wives of Windsor, I, iii, 30-33. 

75. Charlemain. Trisyllabic. Charles the Bald is meant. 

76. Lewis. Here and elsewhere in this scene a monosyllable. 

77. Lewis the tenth. This should be ' Lewis the ninth ' (Louis IX, 
St. Louis, 'the Crusader' and founder of La Sorbonne), but, as the 
following extract will show, the error is due to Holinshed, whom 
Shakespeare follows, here and throughout the scene, almost word 
for word : 

King Lewes also the tenth, otherwise called saint Lewes, being verie heir 
to the said usurper Hugh Capet, could never be satisfied in his conscience 
how he might justlie keepe and possesse the crowne of France, till he was 
persuaded and fullie instructed that queene Isabell his grandmother was 
lineallie descended of the ladie Ermengard daughter and heire to the above 
named Charles duke of Loraine, by the which marriage, the bloud and line 
of Charles the great was againe united and restored to the crowne and scepter 
of France, so that more cleeare than the sunne it openlie appeareth that the 
title of king Pepin, the claime of Hugh Capet, the possession of Lewes, yea 
and the French kings to this daie, are derived and conveied from the heire 
female, though they would vnder the colour of such a fained law, barre 
the kings and princes of this realme of England of their . . . inheritance. 



18 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act I 

Daughter to Charles the foresaid Duke of Lorraine : 

By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great 

Was re-united to the crown of France. 85 

So that, as clear as is the summer's sun, 

King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim, 

King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear 

To hold in right and title of the female : 

So do the kings of France unto this day ; 90 

Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law 

To bar your highness claiming from the female, 

And rather choose to hide them in a net 

Than amply to imbar their crooked titles 

Usurp'd from you and your progenitors. 95 

King Henry. May I with right and conscience make 
this claim? 

Canterbury. The sin upon my head, dread sovereign ! 
For in the book of Numbers is it writ, 
' When the man dies, let the inheritance 

90. unto Fi I until Qq Pope. bare Rowe | imbare Theobald. 

94. imbar F3F4 I imbarre F1F2 I 98. is it QqFiF2 I it is F3F4. 

imbace Q1Q2 I embrace Q3 I make 99. man Ff | sonne Qq | son Pope. 

88. Lewis his satisfaction : Lewis's release from the burden of con- 
science. ' His' was often used, by mistake, for 's, the sign of the pos- 
sessive, particularly after a proper name ending in j". See Abbott,§2i7. 

94. amply to imbar: "to reject fully." — Schmidt. Rowe read'make 
bear,' and Theobald ' imbare,' for the ' imbarre ' of the First Folio. 
Knight understood 'imbar' in the sense of 'bar in,' 'secure.' "The 
antithesis is between an open (line 94) and a crafty (line 93) means 
of defence." — Herford. 

98-100. " The archbishop further alledged out of the booke of 
Numbers this saieng : ' When a man dieth without a sonne, let the 
inheritance descend to his daughter.'" — Holinshed. The passage 
referred to is Numbers, xxvii, 8, where decision is made in the case 
of the daughters of Zelophehad. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 19 

Descend unto the daughter.' Gracious lord, 100 

Stand for your own ; unwind your bloody flag ; 

Look back into your mighty ancestors : 

Go, my dread lord, to your great-grandsire's tomb, 

From whom you claim ; invoke his warlike spirit, 

And your great-uncle's, Edward the Black Prince, 105 

Who on the French ground play'd a tragedy, 

Making defeat on the full power of France, 

Whiles his most mighty father on a hill 

Stood smiling to behold his lion's whelp 

Forage in blood of French nobility. no 

O noble English, that could entertain 

With half their forces the full pride of France 

And let another half stand laughing by, 

All out of work and cold for action ! 

Ely. Awake remembrance of these valiant dead, 115 
And with your puissant arm renew their feats : 
You are their heir ; you sit upon their throne ; 
The blood and courage that renowned them 
Runs in your veins ; and my thrice-puissant liege 
Is in the very May-morn of his youth, 120 

Ripe for exploits and* mighty enterprises. 

Exeter. Your brother kings and monarchs of the earth 
Do all expect that you should rouse yourself, 

no. Forage in | Forrage in Ff | 112. pride Ff | power Qq Pope. 

Foraging Qi. 114. All F1F2 I And F3F4. 

105-110. The reference is to the battle of Crecy, August 26, 1346, 
where Edward III "stood aloft on a windmill hill." — Holinshed. 

114. cold for action : cold for want of action. ' Action ' is a tri- 
syllable. Such elliptical expressions are common in Shakespeare. 
Cf. Macbeth, I, v, 37 ; The Tempest, I, ii, 112. 



20 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

As did the former lions of your blood : 

They know your grace hath cause and means and might. 125 

Westmoreland. So hath your highness; never king of 
England 
Had nobles richer and more loyal subjects, 
Whose hearts have left their bodies here in England 
And lie pavilion'd in the fields of France. 

Canterbury. O, let their bodies follow, my dear liege, 
With blood and sword and fire to win your right : 131 

In aid whereof we of the spiritualty 
Will raise your highness such a mighty sum 
As never did the clergy at one time 
Bring in to any of your ancestors. 135 

King Henry. We must not only arm t' invade the French, 
But lay down our proportions to defend 
Against the Scot, who will make road upon us 
With all advantages. 

Canterbury. They of those marches, gracious sovereign, 
Shall be a wall sufficient to defend 141 

Our inland from the pilfering borderers. 

125. Given to Westmoreland by Ff. by Warburton. 

130-131. Given to Westmoreland 131. blood F3F4 I bloods Fi. 

130-135. This largess is thus described by Holinshed : 

He exhorted him to aduance foorth his banner to fight for his right . . . 
to spare neither bloud, sword, nor fire . . . And to the intent his louing chap- 
leins and obedient subiects of the spiritualtie might shew themselues will- 
ing . . . the archbishop declared that in their spirituall conuocation they had 
granted to his highnesse such a summe of monie, as neuer by no spirituall 
persons was to any prince before those daies giuen or advanced. 

137. lay down our proportions: assign the requisite number of 
troops. Cf. 'our proportions for these wars,' line 304; 'the propor- 
tions of defence/ II, iv, 45. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 21 

King Henry. We do not mean the coursing snatchers 
only, 
But fear the main intendment of the Scot, 
Who hath been still a giddy neighbour to us; 145 

For you shall read that my great-grandfather 
Never went with his forces into France, 
But that the Scot on his unfurnish'd kingdom 
Came pouring, like the tide into a breach, 
With ample and brim fulness of his force, 150 

Galling the gleaned land with hot assays, 
Girding with grievous siege castles and towns ; 
That England, being empty of defence, 
Hath shook and trembled at th' ill neighbourhood. 

Canterbury. She hath been then more fear'd than 
harm'd, my liege; 155 

For hear her but exampled by herself : 
When all her chivalry hath been in France, 
And she a mourning widow of her nobles, 
She hath herself not only well defended 
But taken and impounded as a stray 160 

The King of Scots ; whom she did send to France, 
To fill King Edward's fame with prisoner kings, 
And make her chronicle as rich with praise 

143. snatchers Ff | sneakers Qq. 163. her Capell (Johnson conj.) 
155. been Rowe | bin Ff. Globe Camb | their Ff | your Qq. 

144. main intendment : general purpose. That is, ' attack,' 'invasion.' 

145. still: ever, always. — giddy: fickle, untrustworthy. 
151. gleaned : bare of defenders. — assays : attacks. 

155. fear'd : frightened. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, i, 9. 

161. David II was taken prisoner at NevilPs Cross, October 17, 
1346, by the English army under Queen Philippa, during Edward Ill's 
absence in France. He was not sent to France. 



22 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

As is the ooze and bottom of the sea 

With sunken wreck and sunless treasuries. 165 

Westmoreland. But there 's a saying, very old and true, 
1 If that you will France win, 
Then with Scotland first begin ' : 
For once the eagle England being in prey, 
To her unguarded nest the weasel Scot 170 

Comes sneaking and so sucks her princely eggs • 
Playing the mouse in absence of the cat, 
To tear and havoc more than she can eat. 

Exeter. It follows then the cat must stay at home : 
Yet that is but a crush'd necessity, 175 

Since we have locks to safeguard necessaries, 
And pretty traps to catch the petty thieves. 
While that the armed hand doth fight abroad, 
Th' advised head defends itself at home; 
For government, though high and low and lower, 180 

Put into parts, doth keep in one consent, 

166. Westmoreland Capell | 173. tear Rowe | tame Ff | spoyle 

Lord Qq | Bish. Ely Ff. Qq | taint Theobald. 

167-168. One line in Ff. 175. crush'd Ff | curst Qq Pope. 

166. " When the archbishop had ended . . . Rafe Neuill earle of 
Westmerland, and as then lord Warden of the marches against Scot- 
land . . . thought good to mooue the king to begin first with Scotland 
. . . concluding the summe of his tale with this old saieng: that Who 
so will France win, must with Scotland first begin?"* — Holinshed. 

167. France is here probably dissyllabic. See Abbott, § 486. 

175. a crush'd necessity. A proleptical form of speech meaning ' a 
necessity that may be crushed by the use of other means such as 
locks or traps.' Many editors accept the reading of the Quartos. 

179. advised : thoughtful, deliberate. Cf. " The silver livery of 
advised age " in 2 Henry VI, V, ii, 47. 

181. consent: harmony. More correctly 'concent' (Lat. concentus). 



scene ir KING HENRY THE FIFTH 23 

Congreeing in a full and natural close, 
Like music. 

Canterbury. Therefore doth heaven divide 
The state of man in divers functions, 

Setting endeavour in continual motion; 185 

To which is fixed, as an aim or butt, 
Obedience : for so work the honey-bees, 
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach 
The art of order to a peopled kingdom. 
They have a king and officers of sorts ; 190 

Where some, like magistrates, correct at home, 
Others, like merchants, venture trade abroad, 
Others, like soldiers, armed in their stings, 
Make boot upon the summer's velvet buds, 
Which pillage they with merry march bring home 195 

183. Therefore Ff | True : therefore Qq Capell. 

182. Congreeing : agreeing. Evidently a Shakespearian coinage. 
The Quartos read, * Congrueth in a mutuall consent.' Cf. V, ii, 31. 
— close: cadence. Cf. Milton, Hymn 071 the Nativity, 99-100. 

184. state : body politic. Cf. Julius Ccesar, II, i, 67 ; Macbeth, I, 
iii, T40 ; 2 Henry IV, IV, iii, 118. — in : into. 

186. butt: aim, end. A term in archery. The generaLidea of the 
passage is that action or endeavor has for its rule and measure obe- 
dience, or rather the thing obeyed, that is, law ; and this law, stand- 
ing as a common, mark or aim, keeps endeavor from running at 
cross-purposes with itself. 

187. so work the honey-bees. Malone has pointed out the resem- 
blance between this passage and that on 'the commonwealth of 
bees ' in Lyly's Enphues and his England. In both passages we 
have the 'pulpit employment' of fictitious natural history derived 
from Pliny. Cf. Iliad, II, 87; ALneid, I, 430-436; VI, 707-709; 
Paradise lost, I, 768-775. 

190. sorts: different ranks. Cf. "all sorts and conditions of men." 



24 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

To the tent-royal of their emperor ; 

Who, busied in his majesty, surveys 

The singing masons building roofs of gold, 

The civil citizens kneading up the honey, 

The poor mechanic porters crowding in 200 

Their heavy burdens at his narrow gate, 

The sad-eyed justice, with his surly hum, 

Delivering o'er to executors pale 

The lazy yawning drone. I this infer, 

That many things, having full reference 205 

To one consent, may work contrariously : 

As many arrows, loosed several ways, 

Come to one mark ; as many ways meet in one town ; 

As many fresh streams meet in one salt sea ; 

As many lines close in the dial's centre; 210 

So may a thousand actions, once afoot, 

End in one purpose, and be all well borne 

Without defeat. Therefore to France, my liege. 

Divide your happy England into four; 

Whereof take you one quarter into France, 215 

And you withal shall make all Gallia shake. 

If we, with thrice such powers left at home, 

Cannot defend our own doors from the dog, 

Let us be worried and our nation lose 

The name of hardiness and policy. 220 

197. majesty Qq Rowe | Maies- 209. meet in one salt Ff | run in 

ties Ff. one self Qq. 

199. kneading Ff | lading Qq. 212. End Qq | And Ff. 

208. Come Ff | Fly Qq Capell. 213. defeat Ff | defect Qq. 

202. sad-eyed : solemn-looking. Cf. 'sad ' in Twelfth Night, III, iv, 5. 

203. executors : executioners. Accent on the penult. In IV, ii, 
51, the word has its common meaning and pronunciation. 



, 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 25 

King Henry. Call in the messengers sent from the 
Dauphin. \_Exennt some Attendants] 

Now are we well resolv'd ; and, by God's help, 
And yours, the noble sinews of our power, 
France being ours, we '11 bend it to our awe, 
Or break it all to pieces : or there we '11 sit, 225 

Ruling in large and ample empery 
O'er France and all her almost kingly dukedoms, 
Or lay these bones in an unworthy urn, 
Tombless, with no remembrance over them : 
Either our history shall with full mouth 230 

Speak freely of our acts, or else our grave, 
Like Turkish mute, shall have a tongueless mouth, 
Not worshipp'd with a waxen epitaph. 

Enter Ambassadors of France 

Now are we well prepar'd to know the pleasure 

Of our fair cousin Dauphin ; for we hear 235 

Your greeting is from him, not from the king. 

221. Dauphin | Dolphin QqFf 222. well F1F2 I all F3F4. 

(and throughout the play). — [Ex- 233. waxen Ff | paper QqMalone. 

eunt . . . Capell | Ff omit. 234. Scene III Pope. 

226. empery: imperial power, dominion. Cf. Titus Andronicus, 
I, i, 19. Shakespeare uses both ' empire ' and ' empery.' 

232. Turkish mute. It was a common belief that attendants in the 
Turkish court often had the tongue cut out to prevent them from 
betraying secrets. 

233. waxen epitaph. Formerly, in England, it was customary, on 
the death of an eminent person, for friends to compose short lauda- 
tory poems or epitaphs, and affix them to the hearse or the grave 
with pins, paste, or wax. Gifford thinks that Shakespeare here 
alludes to this custom. He adds, " Henry's meaning therefore is 
' I will either have my full histoiy recorded with glory, or lie in an 



26 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

i Ambassador. May't please your majesty to give us 
leave 
Freely to render what we have in charge ; 
Or shall we sparingly show you far off 
The Dauphin's meaning and our embassy? 240 

King Henry. We are no tyrant, but a Christian king; 
Unto whose grace our passion is as subject 
As is our wretches fetter'd in our prisons : 
Therefore with frank and with uncurbed plainness 
Tell us the Dauphin's mind. 

1 Ambassador. Thus, then, in few : 245 

Your highness, lately sending into France, 
Did claim some certain dukedoms, in the right 
Of your great predecessor, King Edward the Third. 
In answer of which claim, the prince our master 
Says that you savour too much of your youth, 250 

And bids you be advis'd, there 's nought in France 
That can be with a nimble galliard won : 
You cannot revel into dukedoms there. 
He therefore sends you, meeter for your spirit, 
This tun of treasure ; and, in lieu of this, 255 

237. 1 Ambassador | Amb. Ff 243. is Ff | are Qq Rowe. — fet- 

(and throughout the scene). ter'd Rowe | fettred Ff. 

undistinguished grave ; not merely without an inscription sculptured 
in stone, but unhonoured even by a waxen epitaph,' that is, by the 
short-lived compliment of a paper fastened on it." 

252. galliard : a lively dance. From Fr. gaillarde, ' lively.' 
255. tun. In the corresponding scene of The Famous Victories of 
Heitry the Fifth (see Introduction, Sources), the ambassador, who is 
the archbishop of Bourges, delivers to the king according to the stage 
direction " a Tunne of Tennis Balles " as a present from the Dauphin. 
The king thereupon exclaims, " What ! a guilded Tunne ? I pray you, 
my Lord of Yorke, looke what is in it." York replies, " And it please 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 27 

Desires you let the dukedoms that you claim 
Hear no more of you. This the Dauphin speaks. 

King Henry. What treasure, uncle? 

Exeter. Tennis-balls, my liege. 

King Henry. We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant 
with us ; 
His present and your pains we thank you for : 260 

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls, 
We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set 
Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard. 
Tell him he hath made a match with such a wrangler 
That all the courts of France will be disturb'd 265 

With chaces. And we understand him well, 
How he comes o'er us with our wilder days, 

your Grace, Here is a Carpet and a Tunne of Tennis balles." Cf. "a 
barrell of Paris balles " in the quotation from Holinshed below. 
The following from The Edinburgh Review, October, 1872, makes 
the meaning of 'tun' still clearer: " In addition to a large cask con- 
taining a certain measure of liquids or solids, it was applied to a gob- 
let, chalice, or drinking-cup, more commonly a silver-gilt goblet." 
258-263. Again Holinshed is followed very closely: 

Whilest in the Lent season the king laie l at Killingworth, there came to 
him from Charles Dolphin of France certeine ambassadors, that brought with 
them a barrell of Paris balles ; which from their maister they presented to him 
for a token that was taken in verie ill part, as sent in scorne, to signifie, that 
it was more meete for the king to passe the time with such childish exercise 
than to attempt any worthie exploit . . . Wherfore the king wrote to him, 
that yer ought 2 long, he woulde tosse him some London balles that perchance 
should shake the walles of the best court in France. 

261. rackets. This and 'set,' 'hazard,' 'wrangler' ('opponent'), 
4 courts,' and 'chaces' ('strokes,' 'points in the game'), are all tech- 
nical terms of court tennis, employed here punningly. 

267. comes o'er us : taunts us. Cf. Othello, IV, i, 20. 

1 stayed. 2 ere aught (before very long). 



28 THE. NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act i 

Not measuring what use we made of them. 

We never valued this poor seat of England ; 

And therefore, living hence, did give ourself 270 

To barbarous license ; as 't is ever common 

That men are merriest when they are from home. 

But tell the Dauphin I will keep my state, 

Be like a king and show my sail of greatness, 

When I do rouse me in my throne of France : 275 

For that I have laid by my majesty, 

And plodded like a man for working- days, 

But I will rise there with so full a glory, 

That I will dazzle all the eyes of France, 

Yea, strike the Dauphin blind to look on us. 280 

And tell the pleasant prince, this mock of his 

Hath turn'd his balls to gun-stones ; and his soul 

Shall stand sore charged for the wasteful vengeance 

That shall fly with them : for many a thousand widows 

Shall this his mock mock out of their dear husbands ; 285 

Mock mothers from their sons, mock castles down; 

And some are yet ungotten and unborn 

That shall have cause to curse the Dauphin's scorn. 

But this lies all within the will of God, 

To whom I do appeal ; and in whose name 290 

Tell you the Dauphin I am coming on, 

To venge me as I may, and to put forth 

274. sail I sayle F1F2F3 I sayl F4 I 276. that Ff | this Qq | here Col- 

soul Collier | scale Wordsworth. lier. 

270. living hence: " withdrawing from the court." — Steevens. 

282. gun-stones. Cannon-balls were at first made of stone. "About 
seaven of the clocke marched forward the light pieces of ordinance, 
with stone and powder." — Holinshed. 



scene II KING HENRY THE FIFTH 29 

My rightful hand in a well-hallow'd cause. 

So get you hence in peace ; and tell the Dauphin 

His jest will savour but of shallow wit, 295 

When thousands weep more than did laugh at it. 

Convey them with safe conduct. Fare you well. 

\_Exeunt Ambassadors] 

Exeter. This was a merry message. 

King Henry. We hope to make the sender blush at it. 
Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour 300 

That may give furtherance to our expedition ; 
For we have now no thought in us but France, 
Save those to God, that run before our business. 
Therefore let our proportions for these wars 
Be soon collected, and all things thought upon 305 

That may with reasonable swiftness add 
More feathers to our wings ; for, God before, 
We '11 chide this Dauphin at his father's door. 
Therefore let every man now task his thought, 
That this fair action may on foot be brought. 310 

\Exeunt\ 

300. omit no happy : let slip no propitious. Cf . Richard II, I, 
iii, 276; Much Ado About Nothing, IV, i, 285. 

304. proportions : suitable members of troops. To ' proportion ' a 
thing is to make it proportionable to a purpose. Cf. line 137 above. 

307. God before : God going before. But Abbott, § 203, construes 
'before ' as a transposed preposition. Cf. Ill, vi, 153. 



ACT II 

PROLOGUE 

Flourish. Enter Chorus 

Chorus. Now all the youth of England are on fire, 
And silken dalliance in the wardrobe lies : 
Now thrive the armourers, and honour's thought 
Reigns solely in the breast of every man : 
They sell the pasture now to buy the horse, 5 

Following the mirror of all Christian kings, 
With winged heels, as English Mercuries. 
For now sits Expectation in the air, 
And hides a sword from hilts unto the point 
With crowns imperial, crowns, and coronets, 10 

Promis'd to Harry and his followers. 
The French, advis'd by good intelligence 

ACT II. PROLOGUE | QqFf ceding scene in Globe Camb ] omit- 
omit I Act II. Scene I Johnson. — ted in Delius. 
Flourish Ff | after Exeunt in pre- 1-42. Qq omit. 

6. "A paterne in princehode, a lode-starre in honour, and mirrour 
of magnificence." — Holinshed. Cf. / Henry VI, I, iv, 74. 

8. Cf. Milton's personification in Paradise Lost, VI, 306-307 : 
" While Expectation stood In horror." 

9. hilts. Not the handle of the sword, but, as Deighton explains, 
the steel bar protecting the handle. The two projections of this bar 
at right angles to the blade explain the plural form. Cf. II, i, 59 ; 
Julius Cresar, V, iii, 43. 

30 



prologue KING HENRY THE FIFTH 3 1 

Of this most dreadful preparation, 

Shake in their fear, and with pale policy 

Seek to divert the English purposes. 15 

O England ! model to thy inward greatness, 

Like little body with a mighty heart, 

What mightst thou do, that honour would thee do, 

Were all thy children kind and natural ! 

But see thy fault ! France hath in thee found out 20 

A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills 

With treacherous crowns ; and three corrupted men, 

One, Richard Earl of Cambridge, and the second, 

Henry Lord Scroop of Masham, and the third, 

18. honour would thee do : noble ambition would wish you to do. 

22-27. " But see the hap, the night before the daie appointed for 
their departure, he was crediblie informed, that Richard earle of 
Cambridge, brother to Edward duke of York, and Henrie lord 
Scroope of Masham, lord treasuror, with Thomas Graie, a knight 
of Northumberland, being confederat togither, had conspired his 
death; wherefore he caused them to be apprehended." — Holin- 
shed. — Richard Earl of Cambridge. This was Richard Plantagenet, 
second son to Edmund of Langley, Duke of York, who, again, was 
the fourth son of Edward III. He was married to Anne Mortimer, 
sister to Edmund, Earl of March, and great-granddaughter of Lionel, 
Duke of Clarence, who was the second son of Edward III. From 
this marriage sprung Richard, who in the next reign was restored to 
the rights and titles forfeited by his father, and was made Duke of 
York. This Richard afterwards claimed the crown in right of his 
mother, and as the lineal heir from the aforesaid Lionel ; and hence 
arose the long war between the Houses of York and Lancaster. So 
that this Earl of Cambridge was the grandfather of Edward IV and 
Richard III. His older brother, Edward, the Duke of York of this 
pla)4, was killed at the battle of Agincourt, and left no child. — Henry 
Lord Scroop of Masham. Henry, third Lord Scrope of Masham, eldest 
son of Sir Stephen Scrope, second Lord Scrope of Masham, was 
beheaded and attainted in 1415. — Sir Thomas Grey. Of Heton, 



32 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Sir Thomas Grey, knight, of Northumberland, 25 

Have, for the gilt of France — O guilt indeed ! — 

Confirm'd conspiracy with fearful France ; 

And by their hands this grace of kings must die, 

If hell and treason hold their promises, 

Ere he take ship for France, and in Southampton. 30 

Linger your patience on ; and we '11 digest 

Th' abuse of distance, force a play. 

The sum is paid ; the traitors are agreed ; 

The king is set from London ; and the scene 

Is now transported, gentles, to Southampton ; 35 

There is the playhouse now, there must you sit : 

And thence to France shall we convey you safe, 

And bring you back, charming the narrow seas 

To give you gentle pass ; for, if we may, 

We '11 not offend one stomach with our play. . 40 

But, till the king come forth, and not till then, 

Unto Southampton do we shift our scene. \_Exit~\ 

Northumberland; married the third daughter of Ralph, Earl of 
Westmoreland; executed in 141 5. 

26. This pun on 'gilt ' and 'guilt ' occurs in Macbeth, II, ii, 56-57. 
Cf. 2 Henry IV, IV, v, 129. ' Gilt ' meaning ' money ' is still thieves' 
argot. Murray quotes from Marston's Scourge of Villanie : 

Now nothing, any thing, euen what you list, 
So that some guilt may grease his greedy fist. 

31-32. digest Th' abuse of distance : " satisfactorily arrange the 
disregard of space." — Verity. — force a play: "produce a play by 
compelling many circumstances into a narrow compass." — Steevens. 
The broken metre here suggests corruption of the text, but H. A. 
Evans suggests that this is intended to emphasize the amount of 
effort required on the part of the actors to produce the desired 
effect. 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 33 

Scene I. London. A street 

Enter Corporal Nym and Lieutenant Bardolph 

Bardolph. Well met, Corporal Nym. 

Nym. Good morrow, Lieutenant Bardolph. 

Bardolph. What, are Ancient Pistol and you friends yet ? 

Nym. For my part, I care not : I say little ; but, when 
time shall serve, there shall be smiles ; but that shall be as 
it may. I dare not fight ; but I will wink and hold out 
mine iron: it is a simple one; but what though? it will 
toast cheese, and it will endure cold as another man's 
sword will : and there 's an end. 9 

Bardolph. I will bestow a breakfast to make you friends ; 
and we '11 be all three sworn brothers to France. Let 't be 
so, good Corporal Nym. 

Scene I. Hanmer | Act I. Scene 5. smiles Ff | smites Collier. 

IV Pope. — London. A street Capell 9. an end Ff| the humour of it Qq. 

Globe I Before Quickly's house in 11. to Ff | in Dyce. — Let 't F1F2 

East-cheap Theobald. F3 I Let it Rowe | Let 7 s F4. 

Enter Corporal Nym. The corporal derives his name from Mid- 
dle English nimen, ' to take ' (Anglo-Saxon nimaii). ' Nim ' is seven- 
teenth century slang for 'pilfer' (see Murray), and in the old cant 
of English thieves ' to steal ' was ' to nim.' Professional thieves take 
it in ill part if the word 'stealing ' is applied to their action. An expe- 
rienced English magistrate is said to have remarked, that of the per- 
sons brought before him for theft many confessed they ' took ' the 
article in question, but none said they ' stole ' it. 

3. ' Ancient ' is a corruption of ' ensign,' through ' ensyne ' having 
been confounded with ' ancien.' See Murray. The full form of the 
title was 'ancient-bearer.' Iago was Othello's 'ancient,' i.e. 'ensign.' 

11. sworn brothers. " In the time of adventure, it was usual for 
two Chiefs to bind themselves to share in each other's fortune, 
and divide their acquisitions between them." — Whalley. 'Sworn 
brothers' were called fratres jurati. Cf. Richard II, V, i, 20. 



34 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Nym. Faith, I will live so long as I may, that 's the cer- 
tain of it ; and when I cannot live any longer, I will do as 
I may. That is my rest, that is the rendezvous of it. 15 

Bardolph. It is certain, corporal, that he is married to 
Nell Quickly : and certainly she did you wrong, for you 
were troth-plight to her. 

Nym. I cannot tell : things must be as they may : men 
may sleep, and they may have their throats about them at 
that time \ and some say knives have edges. It must be as 
it may : though patience be a tired mare, yet she will plod. 
There must be conclusions. Well, I cannot tell. 23 

Enter Pistol and Hostess 

Bardolph. Here comes Ancient Pistol and his wife : good 
corporal, be patient here. How now, mine host Pistol ! 

Pistol. Base tike, call'st thou me host? 
Now, by this hand, I swear, I scorn the term ; 
Nor shall my Nell keep lodgers. 28 

Hostess. No, by my troth, not long ! [Nym draws 
his sword~\ O well-a-day, Lady, if he be not drawn ! 

14. do Ff I die Dyce. 26-28. As in Qq Johnson | prose 
22. mare Qq I name Ff | dame in Ff. 

Hanmer. 29. [Nym draws . . . | Ff omit. 

24. Hostess | Quickly Ff | Hostes 30. drawn Theobald | hewneFiF2 

Quickly his wife Qq. I hewn F3F4 I Qq omit. 

15. rest : determination. A word quibble is involved, but ' to set 
up one's rest ' was a common Elizabethan phrase for ' to determine 
to.' Cf. The Merchant of Venice, II, ii, no. The expression is said 
to have come from the old game of primero, where it meant deter- 
mination to stand upon the cards held in the hand. 

26. tike : dog. The word, still in common use in the north of 
England and in Scotland, is applied even to dogs in an uncompli- 
mentary sense. Cf. Burns's " Nae tawted tyke, tho e'er sae duddie." 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 35 

[Pistol also draws his sword'] Now we shall see wilful 

murder committed. 32 

Bardolph. Good lieutenant ! good corporal ! offer nothing 

here. 

Nym. Pish ! 35 

Pistol. Pish for thee, Iceland dog ! thou prick-ear'd 

cur of Iceland ! 

Hostess. Good Corporal Nym, show thy valour, and put 

up your sword. 

Nym. Will you shog off? I would have you solus. 40 

Pistol. ' Solus,' egregious dog? O viper vile ! 

The ' solus ' in thy most mervailous face ; 

The ' solus ' in thy teeth, and in thy throat, 

And in thy hateful lungs, yea, in thy maw, perdy, 

And, which is worse, within thy nasty mouth ! 45 

I do retort the ' solus ' in thy bowels ; 

31. [Pistol also draws . . . | Ff 39. your F1F2 I thy F3F4. 

omit. 41-48. Ff print as prose. 

35. Pish Ff I Push Qq. 42. mervailous F1F2 I marvellous 

36, 37. Iceland Steevens (Johnson F3F4. 

conj.) I Island Ff. 45. nasty Ff | mesfull Qq. 

33. The military titles of this roistering band vary amusingly. 
This is humorously true to life. 

36-37. "Besides these also we have sholts or curres daily brought 
out of Iseland, and made much of among us, because of their sawci- 
nesse and quarrelling. Moreover they bite verie sore." — Harrison's 
A Description of England. 

40. shog. This is a slang doublet-form of 'jog.' Cf. II, hi, 38. 

41. 'Solus,' the Latin for 'alone,' is not understood by Pistol. He 
evidently thinks it is an insulting term hurled at him by Nym. 

42. mervailous. This archaic form of 'marvellous,' like 'perdy' 
{par dieu) in line 44, accords well with Pistol's mock-heroic verse 
rant made up of playhouse gleanings and tags from old romances 
and ballads. 



36 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

For I can take, and Pistol's cock is up, 
And flashing fire will follow. 

Nym. I am not Barbason ; you cannot conjure me. I 
have an humour to knock you indifferently well. If you 
grow foul with me, Pistol, I will scour you with my rapier, 
as I may, in fair terms : if you would walk off, I would prick 
your guts a little, in good terms, as I may : and that 's the 
humour of it. 

Pistol. O braggart vile, and damned furious wight ! 55 
The grave doth gape, and doting death is near ; 
Therefore exhale. 

Bardolph. Hear me, hear me what I say : he that strikes 
the first stroke, I '11 run him up to the hilts, as I am a 
soldier. \_Draws~\ 

Pistol. An oath of mickle might ; and* fury shall abate. 
Give me thy fist, thy fore-foot to me give : 
Thy spirits are most tall. 

Nym. I will cut thy throat, one time or other, in fair 
terms : that is the humour of it. 65 

47. take Ff | talke Qq. 62-63. Prose in Ff. 

60. [Draws | They drawe Qq I Ff omit. 63. most Ff | more Pope. 

47. ' Take ' here means, probably, ' catch fire,' as the rest of the 
speech is a play on Pistol's name. But it may mean simply ' under- 
stand.' Some editors interpret it in the sense of ' do deadly harm,' 
and cite Hamlet, I, i, 163, and King Lear, II, iv, 166. 

49. * Barbason ' is the name of a fiend mentioned in The Merry 
Wives of Windsor, II, ii, 311. Pistol's speech suggests to Nym what 
Steevens calls "the sounding nonsense uttered by conjurers." 

53-54. the humour of it. Nym's catch-phrase. Cf. II, i, 91, 1 16 ; II, 
iii, 53; III, ii, 5. 

57. exhale: draw forth (the sword). A different word from 'ex- 
hale ' in the sense of ' breathe out.' See Murray. 

61. A good example of an Alexandrine (iambic hexameter). 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 37 

Pistol. ' Couple a gorge ' ! 
That is the word. I thee defy again. 

hound of Crete, think'st thou my spouse to get? 
No \ to the spital go, 

And from the powdering-tub of infamy 70 

Fetch forth the lazar kite of Cressid's kind, 
Doll Tearsheet she by name, and her espouse : 

1 have, and I will hold, the quondam Quickly 
For the only she ; and — pauca, there 's enough. 

Go to. 75 

Enter the Boy 

Boy. Mine host Pistol, you must come to my master, 
and you, hostess ; he is very sick, and would to bed. Good 
Bardolph, put thy face between his sheets, and do the office 
of a warming-pan. Faith, he 's very ill. 

Bardolph. Away, you rogue ! 80 

66. Couple a Ff | Couple Qq | 74~75- enough. Go Pope [ enough 
Coupe a Rowe | Coupe le Capell | to go Ff | enough Qq. 

Coupe la Dyce. 77. you, hostess Hanmer | your 

66-75. Prose in Ff. Hostesse Ff. 

67. thee defy Qq | defle thee Ff. 78. face Ff | nose Qq. 

66. Pistol's blunder for coupe la gorge. Cf . IV, iv, 36. 

69. spital : hospital. Cf. V, i, 74. This aphetized form of ' hospi- 
tal ' is still common in dialect. It survives in such proper names as 
Spitalfields, Spital of Glenshee, etc. ' Spital-man,' ' spital-sermon,' 
were common seventeenth century compounds. 

71. ' Kite of Cressid's kind ' seems to have been a bit of common 
stage slang. In the later developments of the Troy legend, as in 
Henryson's Teslame7it of Cresseid, Cressida was cursed with leprosy 
for her faithlessness to Troilus. 

74. pauca : to be brief. Cf. " Pauca verba, Sir John : good worts," 
The Mei'ry Wives of Windsor, I, i, 123 ; also in the same scene, line 
134, Nym's " Slice, I say ! pauca, pauca : slice ! that 's my humour." 



38 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Hostess. By my troth, he '11 yield the crow a pudding. 
one of these days. The king has kill'd his heart. Good hus- 
band, come home presently. \_Exeunt Hostess and Boy] 

Bardolph. Come, shall I make you two friends? We 
must to France together : why the devil should we keep 
knives to cut one another's throats? 86 

Pistol. Let floods o'erswell, and fiends for food howl on ! 

Nym. You '11 pay me the eight shillings I won of you at 
betting? 

Pistol. Base is the slave that pays. 90 

Nym. That now I will have : that 's the humour of it. 

Pistol. As manhood shall compound : push home. 

\_They draw~\ 

Bardolph. By this sword, he that makes the first thrust, 
I '11 kill him ; by this sword, I will. 

Pistol. Sword is an oath, and oaths must have their 
course. 96 

Bardolph. Corporal Nym, and thou wilt be friends, be 
friends : and thou wilt not, why, then be enemies with me 
too. Prithee, put up. 

Nym. I shall have my eight shillings I won of you at 
betting? 101 

83. [Exeunt . . . Capell | Exit Ff . Pope Globe Delius Camb. 

92. [They draw] Qq | Draw Ff. ioo-ioi. I shall have. . . you at 

97, 98. and I & . . . and Ff | an betting ? Qq Capell | Ff omit. 

81. he '11 yield the crow a pudding : the boy will come to the gallows. 

82. The king has kill'd his heart. This prepares us for the pathos 
in the account of Falstaff's death. The words are not in the Quartos. 
" The finest touch in the comic scenes, if not the finest in the whole 
portrait of Falstaff, is apparently an afterthought." — Swinburne. 

97, 98. and : if. No need to change ' and ' to ' an ' when it means 
'if.' See Abbott, §§ 101, 103; also Skeat and Murray. 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 39 

Pistol. A noble shalt thou have, and present pay ; 
And liquor likewise will I give to thee, 
And friendship shall combine, and brotherhood. 
I '11 live by Nym, and Nym shall live by me ; 105 

Is not this just? for I shall sutler be 
Unto the camp, and profits will accrue. 
Give me thy hand. 

Nym. I shall have my noble? 

Pistol. In cash most justly paid. no 

Nym. Well, then, that 's the humour of 't. 

Re-enter Hostess 

Hostess. As ever you came of women, come in quickly 
to Sir John. Ah, poor heart ! he is so shak'd of a burning 
quotidian tertian, that it is most lamentable to behold. 
Sweet men, come to him. 115 

Nym. The king hath run bad humours on the knight; 
that 's the even of it. 

Pistol. Nym, thou hast spoke the right ; 
His heart is fracted and corroborate. 

Nym. The king is a good king : but it must be as it may ; 
he passes some humours and careers. 121 

Pistol. Let us condole the knight ; for, lambkins, we 
will live. \Exeunf\ 

102-108. Prose in Ff. 113. Ah, | Ah Pope | A Ff. 

in. that »s F2F3F4 I that Fi. 118-119. Prose in Ff. 

112. came QqF2F3F4 | come Fi. 122. lambkins, | (Lambekins) Ff. 

114. Dame Quickly uses long words without knowing their mean- 
ing. A ' quotidian ' recurs every day ; a ' tertian,' every three days. 

121. passes . . . careers : indulges whims. In Baret's Alvearie, 
1580, 'career' is defined as 'the short turning of a nimble horse, 
now this way, nowe that way.' 



40 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Scene II. Southampton. A council-chamber 

Enter Exeter, Bedford, and Westmoreland 

Bedford. 'Fore God, his grace is bold, to trust these 
traitors. 

Exeter. They shall be apprehended by and by. 

Westmoreland. How smooth and even they do bear 
themselves ! 
As if allegiance in their bosoms sat, 
Crowned with faith and constant loyalty. 5 

Bedford. The king hath note of all that they intend, 
By interception which they dream not of. 

Exeter. Nay, but the man that was his bedfellow, 
Whom he hath dull'd and cloy'd with gracious favours ; 
That he should, for a foreign purse, so sell 10 

His sovereign's life to death and treachery ! 

Trumpets sound. Enter King Henry, Scroop, 
Cambridge, a?td Grey 

King Henry. Now sits the wind fair, and we will 
aboard. 
My Lord of Cambridge, and my kind Lord of Masham, 

Scene II Pope | Scene III John- Ff omit, 
son I Ff omit. — Southampton Pope 9. dull'd F1F2 I lull'd F3F4. 

I QqFf omit. — A council- chamber 12. Tru7?tfiets ... Henry | Sound 

Malone | A Hall of Council Capell | Trumpets. Enter the King Ff. 

8-11. " Lord Scroope was in such favour with the king, that he 
admitted him sometime to be his bed-fellow, in whose fidelitie the 
king reposed such trust, that when anie . . . councell was in hand, 
this lord had much in the determination of it." — Holinshed. 

12. Scroop. Henry, third Baron Scrope of Masham, eldest son 
of Sir Stephen Scrope, second Baron Scrope of Masham, was 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 41 

And you, my gentle knight, give me your thoughts : 
Think you not that the powers we bear with us 15 

Will cut their passage through the force of France, 
Doing the execution and the act 
For which we have in head assembled them ? 

Scroop. No doubt, my liege, if each man do his best. 

King Henry. I doubt not that ; since we are well 
persuaded 20 

We carry not a heart with us from hence 
That grows not in a fair consent with ours, 
Nor leave not one behind that doth not wish 
Success and conquest to attend on us. 

Cambridge. Never was monarch better fear'd and lov'd 
Than is your majesty : there 's not, I think, a subject 26 
That sits in heart-grief and uneasiness 
Under the sweet shade of your government. 

Grey. True ; those that were your father's enemies 
Have steep 'd their galls in honey, and do serve you 30 

With hearts create of duty and of zeal. 

King Henry. We therefore have great cause of thank- 
fulness ; 

29. Grey | Gray F4 I Kni. F1F2F3. — True ; those | Even those Qq. 

beheaded and attainted in 141 5. — Cambridge. Richard, second 
son of Edmund, Duke of York, was created Earl of Cambridge in 
1414 and executed in 141 5. He was the father of Richard, Duke of 
York, slain at Wakefield in 1460. — Grey. Sir Thomas Grey, of 
Heton, Northumberland, the son-in-law of the Earl of Westmore- 
land, and ancestor of the present Earl Grey, was executed in 141 5. 

18. head : organized force. Cf. 1 Henry IV, I, iii, 284 : " To save 
our heads by raising of a head." So in Hamlet, IV, v, 10 1. 

31. create : made of, composed of. The Latin form of the past 
participle. See note, I, ii, 16. — duty: dutif illness. 



42 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

And shall forget the office of our hand, 

Sooner than quittance of desert and merit 

According to the weight and worthiness. 35 

Scroop. So service shall with steeled sinews toil, 
And labour shall refresh itself with hope, 
To do your grace incessant services. 

King Henry. We judge no less. Uncle of Exeter, 
Enlarge the man committed yesterday, 40 

That rail'd against our person : we consider 
It was excess of wine that set him on ; 
And on his more advice we pardon him. 

Scroop. That 's mercy, but too much security : 
Let him be punish'd, sovereign ; lest example 45 

Breed, by his sufferance, more of such a kind. 

King Henry. O, let us yet be merciful. 

Cambridge. So may your highness, and yet punish too. 

Grey. Sir, 
You show great mercy, if you give him life, 50 

After the taste of much correction. 

King Henry. Alas, your too much love and care of me 
Are heavy orisons 'gainst this poor wretch ! 
If little faults, proceeding on distemper, 
Shall not be wink'd at, how shall we stretch our eye 55 

When capital crimes, chew'd, swallow'd, and digested, 
Appear before us? We '11 yet enlarge that man, 

35. the weight Ff | their cause Qq. 49-50. One line in Ff. 

34. quittance : repayment, requital. Cf. As You Like It, III, v, 133. 

43. on his more advice : on further consideration about him. 

44. security: over-confidence. Cf. Macbeth, III, v, 32-33: "And 
you all know security Is mortals' chiefest enemy." 

54. distemper : intemperance, intoxication. Cf. Othello, I, i, 99. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 43 

Though Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, in their dear care 
And tender preservation of our person, 59 

Would have him punish'd. And now to our French causes : 
Who are the late commissioners? 

Cambridge. I one, my lord : 
Your highness bade me ask for it to-day. 

Scroop. So did you me, my liege. 

Grey. And I, my royal sovereign. 65 

King Henry. Then, Richard Earl of Cambridge, there 
is yours ; 
There yours, Lord Scroop of Masham ; and, sir knight, 
Grey of Northumberland, this same is yours : 
Read them ; and know, I know your worthiness. 
My Lord of Westmoreland, and uncle Exeter, 70 

We will aboard to-night. Why, how now, gentlemen ! 
What see you in those papers that you lose 
So much complexion ? Look ye, how they change ! 
Their cheeks are paper. Why, what read you there, 
That hath so cowarded and chas'd your blood 75 

Out of appearance ? 

Cambridge. I do confess my fault ; 

And do submit me to your highness' mercy. 

[ To which we all appeal. 
Scroop. J 

King Henry. The mercy that was quick in us but late, 

By your own counsel is suppress'd and kill'd : 80 

65. I Ff I me Qq. 75. hath QqF 4 I haue F1F2F3. 

72. lose I loose Fi. 76. appearance ? Rowe I apparance F1F2. 

61. late: recently appointed. Cf. 'late ambassadors,' II, iv, 31. 
74. cheeks are paper. Cf. ' paper-fac'd villain,' 2 Henry IV, V, iv, 1 2. 
79. quick : living, alive. Cf. " the quick and the dead." See Skeat. 



44 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

You must not dare, for shame, to talk of mercy ; 

For your own reasons turn into your bosoms, 

As dogs upon their masters, worrying you. 

See you, my princes and my noble peers, 

These English monsters ! My Lord of Cambridge here, 85 

You know how apt our love was to accord 

To furnish him with all appertinents 

Belonging to his honour ; and this man 

Hath, for a few light crowns, lightly conspir'd, 

And sworn unto the practices of France, 90 

To kill us here in Hampton : to the which 

This knight, no less for bounty bound to us 

Than Cambridge is, hath likewise sworn. But, O, 

What shall I say to thee, Lord Scroop? thou cruel, 

Ingrateful, savage, and inhuman creature ! 95 

Thou that didst bear the key of all my counsels, 

That knew'st the very bottom of my soul, 

That almost mightst have coin'd me into gold, 

Wouldst thou have practis'd on me for thy use ! 

May it be possible, that foreign hire 100 

Could out of thee extract one spark of evil 

That might annoy my finger? 'tis so strange, * 

That, though the truth of it stands off as gross 

As black and white, my eye will scarcely see it 

Treason and murder ever kept together, 105 

As two yoke-devils sworn to either's purpose, 

82. into Ff I upon Qq. 87. him F2 I omitted in Fi. 

83. you Ff I them Qq. 104. and Ff | from Qq. 

86. accord: consent, agree. Cf. A Lover' *s Complaint, 3. 
90. practices: plots. Cf. line 144 and King Lear, II, i, 75. 
95. In Shakespeare occur 'ingrateful,' 'ungrateful,' 'ingrate.' 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 45 

Working so grossly in a natural cause, 

That admiration did not hoop at them : 

But thou, 'gainst all proportion, didst bring in 

Wonder to wait on treason and on murder : no 

And whatsoever cunning fiend it was 

That wrought upon thee so preposterously, 

Hath got the voice in hell for excellence : 

And other devils that suggest by treasons 

Do botch and bungle up damnation 115 

With patches, colours, and with forms being fetch'd 

From glistering semblances of piety ; 

But he that temper'd thee bade thee stand up, 

Gave thee no instance why thou shouldst do treason, 

Unless to dub thee with the name of traitor. 120 

If that same demon that hath gull'd thee thus 

Should with his lion gait walk the whole world, 

He might return to vasty Tartar back, 

And tell the legions, ' I can never win 

107. grossly Ff | closely Hanmer. 114. And Ff | All Hanmer Globe. 

108. hoop F3F4 I hoope F1F2 I 118. temper'd Ff | tempted Dyce. 
whoop Theobald. 122. lion gait | Lyon-gate Ff. 

107. " Working so apparently under the influence of some 
motive which nature excuses at least in some measure ; such as 
self-preservation, revenge, and the like, which have the greatest 
sway in the constitution of human nature." — Heath. 

108. admiration did not hoop : wonder did not shout in surprise. 

109. proportion : the natural order, or fitness, of things. 
114. suggest: tempt. Cf. 'suggestion,' Macbeth, I, iii, 134. 
119. instance : occasion, inducement, ground. See Murray. 

122. lion gait. The reference is plainly to 1 Peter, v, 8. 

123. ' Vasty' here, and in II, iv, 105, is probably to be understood 
in the secondary sense of Lat. vastus, as 'hideous,' 'monstrous.' — 
Tartar: Tartarus. Cf. Twelfth Night, II, v, 225-226. 



46 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

A soul so easy as that Englishman's.' 125 

O, how hast thou with jealousy infected 

The sweetness of affiance ! Show men dutiful? 

Why, so didst thou : seem they grave and learned? 

Why, so didst thou : come they of noble family ? 

Why, so didst thou : seem they religious? 130 

Why, so didst thou : or are they spare in diet, 

Free from gross passion or of mirth or anger, 

Constant in spirit, not swerving with the blood, 

Garnish'd and deck'd in modest complement, 

Not working with the eye without the ear, 135 

And but in purged judgment trusting neither ? 

Such and so finely bolted didst thou seem : 

And thus thy fall hath left a kind of blot, 

To mark the full-fraught man and best indued 

With some suspicion. I will weep for thee ; 140 

For this revolt of thine, methinks, is like 

Another fall of man. Their faults are open : 

Arrest them to the answer of the law; 

And God acquit them of their practices ! 

139. mark the M alone | make thee Ff. 

134. deck'd in modest complement : adorned with a modest exterior. 

135-136. Not trusting so absolutely in his own perceptions as to 
despise or neglect the advice of others ; and then not acting upon 
either till he has brought a judgment purged from the distempers of 
passion to bear upon the joint result. 

137. bolted: sifted like finest flour. Cf. The Winter 's Ta/e, IV, 
iv, 374 : " snow that's bolted By the northern blasts." 

138-140. " For he represented so great gravitie in his countenance, 
such modestie in behaviour, and so vertuous zeale to all godlinesse 
in his talke, that whatsoever he said was thought for the most part 
necessarie to be doone and followed." — Holinshed. 



scene II KING HENRY THE FIFTH 47 

Exeter. I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of 
Richard Earl of Cambridge. 146 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Henry 
Lord Scroop of Masham. 

I arrest thee of high treason, by the name of Thomas 
Grey, knight, of Northumberland. 150 

Scroop. Our purposes God justly hath discover'd ; 
And I repent my fault more than my death ; 
Which I beseech your highness to forgive, 
Although my body pay the price of it. 

Cambridge. For me, the gold of France did not seduce ; 
Although I did admit it as a motive 156 

The sooner to effect what I intended : 
But God be thanked for prevention ; 
Which I in sufferance heartily will rejoice, 
Beseeching God and you to pardon me. 160 

Grey. Never did faithful subject more rejoice 
At the discovery of most dangerous treason 
Than I do at this hour joy o'er myself, 
Prevented from a damned enterprise : 
My fault, but not my body, pardon, sovereign. 165 

King Henry. God quit you in his mercy ! Hear your 
sentence. 

147. Henry Qq [ Thomas Ff. 159. I F2 I omitted in Fi. 

155-157. According to Holinshed, Cambridge's purpose in joining 
the conspiracy was to give the crown to his brother-in-law, the Earl 
of March, and also to open the succession to his own children. As 
heirs from Lionel, Duke of Clarence, his children would, in strict 
order, precede the Lancastrian branch, as John of Gaunt, the grand- 
father of the present king, was the third son of Edward III. 

159. At which I will heartily rejoice, even as I suffer the penalty. 

166. quit: acquit, absolve. Cf. As You Like It, III, i, 11. 



48 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

You have conspir'd against our royal person, 

Join'd with an enemy proclaim'd, and from his coffers 

Receiv'd the golden earnest of our death ; 

Wherein you would have sold your king to slaughter, 170 

His princes and his peers to servitude, 

His subjects to oppression and contempt, 

And his whole kingdom into desolation. 

Touching our person, seek we no revenge ; 

But we our kingdom's safety must so tender, 175 

Whose ruin you have sought, that to her laws 

We do deliver you. Get you, therefore, hence, 

Poor miserable wretches, to your death : 

The taste whereof, God of his mercy give 

You patience to endure, and true repentance 180 

Of all your dear offences ! Bear them hence. 

\_Exeunt Cambridge, Scroop, and Grey, guarded~\ 
Now, lords, for France ; the enterprise whereof 
Shall be to you as us like glorious. 
We doubt not of a fair and lucky war, 

Since God so graciously hath brought to light 185 

This dangerous treason, lurking in our way 

176. you have Qq Knight Globe 181. [Exeunt Cambridge . . . 

Camb I you three F2F3F4 I you Fi. guarded} Exit Fi. 

174-181. Shakespeare follows closely this from Holinshed: 

Revenge herein touching my person, though I seeke not ; yet for the safe- 
gard of you, my deere freends, and for due preservation of all sorts, I am by 
office to cause example to be shewed. Get ye hence, therefore, ye poore mis- 
erable wretches, to the receiving of your just reward, wherein Gods majestie 
give you grace of his mercie and repentance of your henious offenses. And 
so immediatelie they were had to execution. 

175. tender : take tender care of, cherish. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 
III, i, 74: "which name I tender As dearly as my own." 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 



49 



To hinder our beginnings ; we doubt not now 

But every rub is smoothed on our way. 

Then, forth, dear countrymen : let us deliver 

Our puissance into the hand of God, 190 

Putting it straight in expedition. 

Cheerly to sea \ the signs of war advance : 

No King of England, if not King of France. [Exeunt] 

Scene III. London. Before a tavern 

Enter Pistol, Nym, Bardolph, Boy, and Hostess 

Hostess. Prithee, honey-sweet husband, let me bring 
thee to Staines. 

Pistol. No ; for my manly heart doth yearn. 
Bardolph, be blithe ; Nym, rouse thy vaunting veins ; 
Boy, bristle thy courage up ; for Falstaff he is dead, 5 

And we must yearn therefore. 

Bardolph. Would I were with him, wheresome'er he is, 
either in heaven or in hell ! 

193* \Exeunt\ F2F3F4 | Flourish 1. honey-sweet Theobald Globe 

Fi. Delius I honey sweet F1F2 I honey, 

Scene III Pope | Scene IV John- sweet F3F4. 

son I Ff omit. — Loudon . . . taver?i Ca- 3-6. Prose in Ff. 

pell I London Pope | Quickly's house 3, 6. yearn | erne F1F2 I yern 

in Eastcheap Theobald | Ff omit. F3F4. 

188. rub : obstacle. A technical term in bowling. Cf. V, ii, 23 5 
Richard II, III, iv, 4; Hamlet, III, i, 65; King John, III, iv, 128. 

1. bring: accompany. Cf. The Winter' } s Tale, IV, iii, 122. 

3. yearn: grieve. This is the only meaning of the word in Shake- 
speare. It is used transitively in IV, iii, 26. Skeat considers earn 
(yearn) 'to grieve' of distinct origin from earn (yearn) 'to desire.' 
Mr. Bradley considers it the same word. 

7. wheresome'er. Cf. * whatsome'er ' in AWs Well that Ends 
Well, III, v, 44. 



50 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

Hostess. Nay, sure, he 's not in hell : he 's in Arthur's 
bosom, if ever man went to Arthur's bosom. A made a 
finer end, and went away and it had been any christom 
child : a parted ev'n just between twelve and one, ev'n at 
the turning o' th' tide : for after I saw him fumble with 
the sheets, and play with flowers, and smile upon his fin- 
gers' ends, I knew there was but one way ; for his nose 
was as sharp as a pen, and a babbled of green fields. ' How 
now, Sir John ! ' quoth I : ' what, man ! be o' good cheer.' 
So a cried out, * God, God, God ! ' three or four times. 
Now I, to comfort him, bid him a should not think of God ; 
I hop'd there was no need to trouble himself with any such 
thoughts yet. So a bade me lay more clothes on his feet : 

io-ii. a finer F1F2 I finer F3F4 I a 15. ends Qq Capell | end Ff. 

fine Capell | a final Johnson conj. 16. a babbled of green fields Theo- 

11. and it Ff | an it Pope Globe bald | a Table of greene fields F1F2 I 

Delius Camb | as it Qq. a Table of green fields F3 I a Table 

14. play with Ff | talk of Qq. of green Fields F4. 

10. A : he. An obsolete or dialectic form, sometimes written 'a or 
a'. See Murray; also Abbott, § 402. For Chaucer's use of 'a,' see 
Kittredge's Troilus, page 152. 

11. 'Christom' is a corruption of 'chrisom,' the white robe put on 
a child at baptism (chrism, 'consecrated oil for anointing') as a token 
of innocence, and worn by it for the first month. If the child died 
within the month, the chrisom was used as its shroud. A ' christom 
child,' then, is a child in its chrisom-cloth, in its first innocence. 
Bunyan's most elaborated scoundrel, Mr. Badman, "died like a lamb, 
or as they call it like a chrisom-child, quietly, and without fear." 

12-13. It is an old belief that persons at the point of death pass 
as the tide begins to ebb. " ' People can't die along the coast,' said 
Mr. Peggotty, ' except when the tide 's pretty nigh out. . . . He 's a 
going out with the tide.' " — David Copperfteld, Chapter XXX. 

16. babbled of green fields. This is Theobald's emendation of the 
text of the Folios (the passage does not occur in the Quartos) and 
is perhaps the happiest emendation in all literature. 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 5 1 

I put my hand into the bed and felt them, and they were 
as cold as any stone ; then I felt to his knees, and so 
upward and upward, and all was as cold as any stone. 24 

Nym. They say he cried out of sack. 

Hostess. Ay, that a did. 

Bardolph. And of women. 

Hostess. Nay, that a did not. 

Boy. Yes, that a did ; and said they were devils in- 
carnate. 30 

Hostess. A never could abide carnation ; 't was a colour 
he never lik'd. 

Boy. Do you not remember, a saw a flea stick upon 
Bardolph's nose, and a said it was a black soul burning in 
hell-fire? 35 

Bardolph. Well, the fuel is gone that maintain'd that 
fire : that 's all the riches I got in his service. 

Nym. Shall we shog? the king will be gone from South- 
ampton. 

Pistol. Come, let 's away. My love, give me thy lips. 40 
Look to my chattels and my movables : 
Let senses rule ; the word is ' Pitch and pay ' ; 
Trust none ; 
For oaths are straws, men's faiths are wafer-cakes, 

23. cold as any F1F2 I cold as a up-peer'd and upward Fi | upwar'd 
F3F4. — knees, and so Ff | knees, and and upward F2. 

they were as cold as any stone, and 35. hell-fire Q1Q2 I hell Q3FL 

so Qq Globe Camb. 40-49. Prose in Ff. 

24. upward and upward QqF3F4 I 42. word Q1Q3 I world Q2FL 

42-46. Pistol reels off a string of stock proverbs. " Pitch and paie, 
and go your waie " is quoted by Farmer from Florio as a saying 
inculcating ready-money payment ; and Douce gives, " Brag is a good 
dog, but Hold-fast is a better." — Caveto : be on your guard. Impera- 
tive, Lat. cavere. The Quartos have ' cophetua ' — a ludicrous blunder. 



52 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

And hold-fast is the only dog, my duck : 45 

Therefore, Caveto be thy counsellor. 

Go, clear thy crystals. Yoke-fellows in arms, 

Let us to France ; like horse-leeches, my boys, 

To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck ! 

Boy. And that 's but unwholesome food, they say. 50 
Pistol. Touch her soft mouth, and march. 
Bardolph. Farewell, hostess. \_Kissing her] 

Nym. I cannot kiss, that is the humour of it ; but, adieu. 
Pistol. Let housewifery appear : keep close, I thee 

command. 55 

Hostess. Farewell ; adieu. [Exeunt] 

Scene IV. France. The King's palace 

Flourish, Enter the French King, the Dauphin, the Dukes 
of Berri #;z;/ Bretagne, the Constable, and others 

French King. Thus comes the English with full power 
upon us ; 
And more than carefully it us concerns 
To answer royally in our defences. 
Therefore the Dukes of Berri and of Bretagne, 

46. Caveto Ff | cophetua Qq. palace Globe | Ff omit. 

52. [Kissing her] Capell | Ffomit. Enter . . . others Globe | Enter 

Scene IV Pope | Scene V John- the French King, the Dolphin, the 
son I Ffomit. — Fra?ice. TV** King's Dukes of Berry and Britaine Ff. 

47. clear thy crystals : dry thine eyes. " That kind of poetic dic- 
tion which Pistol loves and Shakespeare laughs at." — Moore Smith. 

1. French King. Charles VI was born in 1368 and reigned 
from 1380 to 1422. He survived Henry V by less than two months, 
but prevented him from ever being actual king of France. — comes. 
A singular verb often precedes a plural subject in Shakespeare. See 






scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 53 

Of Brabant and of Orleans, shall make forth, 5 

And you, Prince Dauphin, with all swift dispatch, 

To line and new repair our towns of war 

With men of courage and with means defendant ; 

For England his approaches makes as fierce 

As waters to the sucking of a gulf. 10 

It fits us then to be as provident 

As fear may teach us out of late examples 

Left by the fatal and neglected English 

Upon our fields. 

Dauphin. My most redoubted father, 

It is most meet we arm us 'gainst the foe ; 15 

For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom, 
Though war nor no known quarrel were in question, 
But that defences, musters, preparations, 
Should be maintain 'd, assembled and collected, 
As were a war in expectation. 20 

Therefore, I say 't is meet we all go forth 
To view the sick and feeble parts of France : 
And let us do it with no show of fear ; 
No, with no more than if we heard that England 
Were busied with a Whitsun morris-dance : 25 

Abbott, § 335. But Aldis Wright takes 'English' here as equivalent 
to ' English king.' Cf. ' the French ' in IV, iv, 72. 

7. line : strengthen. Cf . " did line the rebel " in Macbeth, I, iii, 112. 

14. Dauphin. Louis, the Dauphin, was the eldest son of Charles, 
and after a dissolute career died in 141 6. He was succeeded as 
Dauphin first by his brother John, who died in 141 7, and then by 
his brother Charles, afterwards Charles VII. 

25. morris-dance. This was one of the old popular dances in which 
the performers were dressed fantastically, representing traditional 
characters. It was supposed to have been introduced by the Moors 



54 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

For, my good liege, she is so idly king'd, 
Her sceptre so fantastically borne 
By a vain, giddy, shallow, humorous youth, 
That fear attends her not. 

Constable. O peace, Prince Dauphin ! 

You are too much mistaken in this king : 30 

Question your grace the late ambassadors, 
With what great state he heard their embassy, 
How well supplied with noble counsellors, 
How modest in exception, and withal 

How terrible in constant resolution, 35 

And you shall find his vanities forespent 
Were but the outside of the Roman Brutus, 
Covering discretion with a coat of folly ; 
As gardeners do with ordure hide those roots 
That shall first spring and be most delicate. 40 

Dauphin. Well, 't is not so, my lord high constable ; 
But though we think it so, it is no matter : 
In cases of defence 't is best to weigh 
The enemy more mighty than he seems : 
So the proportions of defence are fill'd ; 45 

Which of a weak and niggardly projection, 

into Spain, and reached England in the reign of Henry VII. The 
name ' morris ' is through the Spanish morisco, from the late Lat. 
Moriscus, ' Moorish.' 

28. humorous: whimsical, capricious. Cf. Coriolanus, II, i, 51. 

34. modest in exception : temperate in expressing disapproval. 

45. proportions : proper preparations. Cf. I, ii, 137. 

46-48. 'Being' is understood after 'which'; and not merely 'which,' 
but the whole clause, is the subject of ' doth spoil,' so that the meaning 
is, The ordering of which after a weak and niggardly project or plan is 
like the work of a miser who spoils his coat with scanting a little cloth. 



scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 55 

Doth, like a miser, spoil his coat with scanting 
A little cloth. 

French King. Think we King Harry strong ; 
And, princes, look you strongly arm to meet him. 
The kindred of him hath been flesh'd upon us ; 50 

And he is bred out of that bloody strain 
That haunted us in our familiar paths : 
Witness our too-much memorable shame 
When Cressy battle fatally was struck, 
And all our princes captiv'd by the hand 55 

Of that black name, Edward, Black Prince of Wales ; 
Whiles that his mountain sire, on mountain standing, 
Up in the air, crown'd with the golden sun, 
Saw his heroical seed, and smil'd to see him, 
Mangle the work of nature, and deface 60 

The patterns that by God and by French fathers 
Had twenty years been made. This is a stem 
Of that victorious stock ; and let us fear 
The native mightiness and fate of him. 

Enter a Messenger 

Messenger. Ambassadors from Harry King of England 
Do crave admittance to your majesty. 66 

52. haunted Ff | hunted War- 57. mountain sire Ff | mounting 

burton (Theobald conj.). sire Theobald | mighty sire Collier. 

50. flesh'd. Cf. Ill, iii, 11. The figure is taken from the old habit 
of rewarding hounds or hawks with a portion of the first game they 
killed. In 1 Henry IV, V, iv, 133-134, 'flesh'd' is used of a sword 
drawing blood for the first time. 

57. mountain sire. This epithet is probably to be taken in the sense 
of ' mighty.' The repetition of ' mountain ' is thoroughly Shake- 
spearian. See quotation from Holinshed illustrating I, ii, 105-110. 



56 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act ii 

French King. We '11 give them present audience. Go, 
and bring them. 

\_Exeunt Messenger and certain Lords] 
You see this chase is hotly follow'd, friends. 

Dauphin. Turn head, and stop pursuit ; for coward dogs 
Most spend their mouths, when what they seem to threaten 
Runs far before them. Good my sovereign, 71 

Take up the English short, and let them know 
Of what a monarchy you are the head : 
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin 
As self-neglecting. 

Enter Exeter 

French King. From our brother of England? 75 

Exeter. From him ; and thus he greets your majesty. 
He wills you, in the name of God Almighty, 
That you divest yourself, and lay apart 
The borrow'd glories, that, by gift of heaven, 
By law of nature and of nations, longs 80 

To him and to his heirs ; namely, the crown, 
And all wide-stretched honours that pertain, 
By custom and the ordinance of times, 
Unto the crown of France. That you may know 
'T is no sinister nor no awkward claim, 85 

67. Two lines in Ff. — [Exeunt son | Ff omit. — brother of Q3Ff | 
. . . Lords] Capell | Ff omit. brother Q1Q2 Pope Globe Delius. 

75. Scene V Pope | Scene VI John- 80. longs Ff | 'long Pope Globe. 

70. spend their mouths : give cry. Cf. Venus and Adonis, 695. 

80. longs : belong. For the construction, see Abbott, §333. 'Long' 
is the simple verb, common in Middle English literature, but now 
superseded in general use by the compound 'belong.' See Murray. 

85. awkward : perverse. Used here in primitive sense. See Skeat. 



scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 57 

Pick'd from the worm-holes of long- vanish' d days, 

Nor from the dust of old oblivion rak'd, 

He sends you this most memorable line, 

In every branch truly demonstrative ; 

Willing you overlook this pedigree : 90 

And when you find him evenly deriv'd 

From his most fam'd of famous ancestors, 

Edward the Third, he bids you then resign 

Your crown and kingdom, indirectly held 

From him the native and true challenger. 95 

French King. Or else what follows? 

Exeter. Bloody constraint : for, if you hide the crown 
Even in your hearts, there will be rake for it : 
Therefore in fierce tempest is he coming, 
In thunder and in earthquake, like a Jove, 100 

That, if requiring fail, he will compel ; 
And bids you, in the bow r els of the Lord, 
Deliver up the crown ; and to take mercy 
On the poor souls for whom this hungry war 
Opens his vasty jaws : and on your head 105 

Turning the widows' tears, the orphans' cries, 

99. fierce QqFf | fiery Dyce. 106. Turning Ff | Turns he Qq.- 

88. memorable : that which will recall to the memory, or preserve 
the memory of. Cf. IV, vii, 98, and V, i, 65, where it is used in the 
same active sense as here. In line 53, above, it is used in a passive 
sense, 'kept in memory,' 'famous.' Shakespeare uses the word only 
in this play. — line : genealogy, family tree. 

94. indirectly: wrongly. Cf. l indirection,' Julius Ccrsar, IV, iii, 75. 

99. fierce. Metrically a dissyllable. See Abbott, § 485. 

102. " King Henrie . . . neuerthelesse exhorted the French king, 
in the bowels of Jesu Christ, to render him that which was his owne ; 
whereby effusion of Christian bloud might be auoided." — Holinshed. 



58 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act n 

The dead men's blood, the pining maidens' groans, 

For husbands, fathers, and betrothed lovers, 

That shall be swallow'd in this controversy. 

This is his claim, his threatening, and my message; no 

Unless the Dauphin be in presence here, 

To whom expressly I bring greeting too. 

French King. For us, we will consider of this further : 
To-morrow shall you bear our full intent 
Back to our brother of England. 

Dauphin. For the Dauphin, 115 

I stand here for him : what to him from England? 

Exeter. Scorn and defiance ; slight regard, contempt, 
And any thing that may not misbecome 
The mighty sender, doth he prize you at. 
Thus says my king; and if your father's highness 120 

Do not, in grant of all demands at large, 
Sweeten the bitter mock you sent his majesty, 
He '11 call you to so hot an answer of it, 
That caves and womby vaultages of France 
Shall chide your trespass, and return your mock 125 

In second accent of his ordinance. 

Dauphin. Say, if my father render fair return, 
It is against my will; for I desire 

107. blood F1F2F3 I bloods F4. — 120. and if Ff | an if Dyce Delius 

pining Qq Pope Globe | priuy Ff. Globe | and, if Capell. 

115. of England Q3Ff | England 126. ordinance Ff | ordenance 

Q1Q2 Pope Globe Delius Camb. Qq | ordnance Malone Globe Camb. 

120. and if. See Abbott, §§ 101-105. Cf. II, i, 97, 98. 

124. By ' womby vaultages ' may be meant ' dungeons and vaults.' 

125. chide : resound. Cf. A Midsummer Night's Dream, IV, i, 119. 

126. ordinance : ordnance. Here the verse demands the trisyllabic 
pronunciation. In III, Prologue, 26, the word is probably dissyllabic. 



scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 59 

Nothing but odds with England : to that end, 

As matching to his youth and vanity, 130 

I did present him with the Paris balls. 

Exeter. He '11 make your Paris Louvre shake for it, 
Were it the mistress-court of mighty Europe : 
And be assur'd you '11 find a difference, 
As we his subjects have in wonder found, 135 

Between the promise of his greener days 
And these he masters now : now he weighs time, 
Even to the utmost grain : that you shall read 
In your own losses, if he stay in France. 139 

French King. To-morrow shall you know our mind at 
full. [Flourish] 

Exeter. Dispatch us with all speed, lest that our king 
Come here himself to question our delay ; 
For he is footed in this land already. 

French King. You shall be soon dispatch'd with fair 
conditions : 
A night is but small breath and little pause 145 

To answer matters of this consequence. [Exeunt] 

129. Line ends at England in Ff. 132. Louvre Pope [ Louer QqFi | 

131. the Ff I those Qq Capell. Loover F2 I Lover F3. 



ACT III 

PROLOGUE 

Flourish, Enter Chorus 

Chorus. Thus with imagin'd wing our swift scene flies 
In motion of no less celerity 

Than that of thought. Suppose that you have seen 
The well-appointed king at Hampton pier 
Embark his royalty ; and his brave fleet 5 

With silken streamers the young Phoebus fanning : 
Play with your fancies ; and in them behold 
Upon the hempen tackle ship-boys climbing; 
Hear the shrill whistle which doth order give 
To sounds confus'd ; behold the threaden sails, 10 

Borne with th' invisible and creeping wind, 
Draw the huge bottoms through the furrow'd sea, 
Breasting the lofty surge. O, do but think 

ACT III. PROLOGUE | Actus 4. Hampton Theobald | Dover Ff. 

Secundus Ff | Act II. Scene I Rowe 6. fanning Rowe | fayning F1F2 I 

I Act III. Scene I Pope. faining F3F4. 

2-3. In . . . thought I One line in Ff. 12. furrow'd Rowe | furrowed Ff. 

1. with imagin'd wing : on the wing of imagination. ' Imagin'd ' for 
' imaginative ' ; another instance of the confusion of active and pas- 
sive forms. Cf. ' imagin'd speed,' The Merchant of Venice, III, iv, 52. 

4. well-appointed : well-equipped. Cf. ' royally appointed,' The 
Winter's Tale, IV, iv, 602. — Hampton. The Folios read 'Dover.' 
One of Theobald's famous corrections. 

60 



prologue KING HENRY THE FIFTH 6l 

You stand upon the rivage, and behold 

A city on th' inconstant billows dancing; 15 

For so appears this fleet majestical, 

Holding due course to Harfleur. Follow, follow! 

Grapple your minds to sternage of this navy ; 

And leave your England, as dead midnight still, 

Guarded with grandsires, babies, and old women, 20 

Either past or not arrived to pith and puissance ; 

For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd 

With one appearing hair, that will not follow 

These cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France? 

Work, work your thoughts, and therein see a siege ; 25 

Behold the ordinance on their carriages, 

With fatal mouths gaping on girded Harfleur. 

Suppose th' ambassador from the French comes back ; 

Tells Harry that the king doth offer him 

Katharine his daughter ; and with her, to dowry, 30 

Some petty and unprofitable dukedoms. 

The offer likes not : and the nimble gunner 

With linstock now the devilish cannon touches, 

[Alarum, and chambers go off~\ 
And down goes all before them. Still be kind, 34 

And eke out our performance with your mind. \Exit\ 

17. Harfleur Rowe | Harflew Ff. 35. eke Pope | eech Fi | ech F2 

26. ordinance | Ordenance F1F2F3. F3F4. 

14. rivage: shore, bank. From Lat. rivus through Fr. rivage. 

17. The * Harflew ' of the Folios follows Holinshed's ' Harflue.' 

18. to sternage of: astern of. Let your mind follow the fleet. 

21. Either. Monosyllabic. For the slurring of ///, see Abbott, § 466. 

32. likes: pleases. The original sense. Cf. IV, i, 16; IV, iii, 77. 

33. linstock. " A staff about three feet long, having a pointed foot 
to stick in the deck or ground, and a forked head to hold a lighted 



62 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Scene I. France. Before Harfleur 

Alarum. Enter King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, Glouces- 
ter, and Soldiers, with scaling-ladders 

King Henry. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, 
once more ; 
Or close the wall up with our English dead ! 
In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man 
As modest stillness and humility : 

But, when the blast of war blows in our ears, 5 

Then imitate the action of the tiger ; 
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, 
Disguise fair nature with hard-favour'd rage : 
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect ; 

Let it pry through the portage of the head 10 

Like the brass cannon ; let the brow o'erwhelm it 
As fearfully as doth a galled rock 
O'er hang and jutty his confounded base, 
Swill'd with the wild and wasteful ocean. 
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide ; 15 

Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit 

Scene I Hanmer | Scene II 1. Once . . . more Pope | two lines 

Pope. — France . . . scaling-ladders in Ff . 

I Enter the King, Exeter, Bedford, 7. summon Rowe | commune Ff. 

and Gloucester. Alarum : Scaling 15. nostril | Nosthrill F1F2. 
Ladders at Harflew Ff. 

match." — Murray. — chambers go off. ' Chambers ' were small pieces 
of artillery, much used on the stage. They were so called because 
of a detachable box, or chamber, containing the powder. 

10. portage: portholes. ' Portage ' occurs in Pericles, III, i, 35. 

13. jutty: project over. — confounded: ruined. Cf. Macbeth, II, 
ii, 12. Used of time in / Henry IV, I, iii, 100 ; Coriolanus, I, vi, 17. 

14. Swill'd : greedily gulped down. Cf. Richard III, V, ii, 9. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 63 

To his full height ! On, on, you noblest English, 

Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof ! 

Fathers that, like so many Alexanders, 

Have in these parts from morn till even fought, 20 

And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument : 

Dishonour not your mothers ; now attest 

That those whom you call'd fathers did beget you ! 

Be copy now to men of grosser blood, 

And teach them how to war ! And you, good yeomen, 25 

Whose limbs were made in England, show us here 

The mettle of your pasture ; let us swear 

That you are worth your breeding : which I doubt not ; 

For there is none of you so mean and base, 

That hath not noble lustre in your eyes. 30 

I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips, 

Straining upon the start. The game 's afoot : 

Follow your spirit ; and upon this charge 

Cry ' God for Harry ! England and Saint George ! ' 

[Exeunt. Alarum, and chambers go off~\ 

Scene II. The same 

Enter Nym, Bardolph, Pistol, and Boy 

Bardolph. On, on, on, on, on ! to the breach, to the 
breach ! 

Nym. Pray thee, corporal, stay : the knocks are too hot ; 

17. noblest F2F3F4 I Noblish Fi. 34. {Exeunt | Ff omit. 

24. men F4 I me F1F2F3. Scene II Hanmer | Scene III 

32. Straining Rowe I Straying Ff. Pope | scene continued in Dyce. 

18. fet: fetched. Past participle of 'fet' (Anglo-Saxon fetian). 
27. mettle of your pasture : excellent quality of your rearing. 



64 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

and, for mine own part, I have not a case of lives : the 
humour of it is too hot,* that is the very plain-song of it. 5 
Pistol. The plain-song is most just, for humours do 
abound : 

Knocks go and come ; God's vassals drop and die ; 
And sword and shield, 
In bloody field, 10' 

Doth win immortal fame. 

Boy. Would I were in an alehouse in London ! I would 
give all my fame for a pot of ale and safety. 
Pistol. And I : 

If wishes would prevail with me, 15 

My purpose should not fail with me, 
But thither would I hie. 

Boy. As duly, but not as truly, 

As bird doth sing on bough. 

Enter Fluellen 

Fluellen. Up to the breach, you dogs ! avaunt, you 
cullions ! \_Driving them forward~\ 

8-11. As prose in Ff. 21. {Driving ... forward] Globe 

15-19. As prose in Ff. Camb | Ff omit. 

4. ' Case ' is here either (1) 'a set,' as in a case of instruments; 
or (2) 'a pair,' as in a case of pistols, a case of poniards. 

5. plain-song : a melody without variations. Cf . ' the plain-song 
cuckoo gray,' A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, i, 134. 

20. In former editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, Capell's intro- 
duction of the Quarto readings here, and elsewhere in this scene, 
was adopted, and the marked peculiarities of Fluellen's dialect, p 
for b and t for d, were printed. In the First Folio text, followed in 
this edition, these peculiarities are merely suggested ; it is left to the 
actor, or reader, to make as much or as little of them as he pleases. 

21. cullions : base, despicable fellows. A term of contempt. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 65 

Pistol. Be merciful, great duke, to men of mould ! 
Abate thy rage, abate thy manly rage, 
Abate thy rage, great duke ! 
Good bawcock, bate thy rage, use lenity, sweet chuck ! 25 

Nym. These be good humours ! your honour wins bad 
humours. [Exeunt all but Boy] 

Boy. As young as I am, I have observ'd these three 
swashers. I am boy to them all three : but all they three, 
though they would serve me, could not be man to me ; 
for, indeed, three such antics do not amount to a man. 
For Bardolph, he is white-liver'd and red-fac'd; by the 
means whereof a faces it out, but fights not. For Pistol, 
he hath a killing tongue and a quiet sword ; by the means 
whereof a breaks words, and keeps whole weapons. For 
Nym, he hath heard that men of few words are the best 
men ; and therefore he scorns to say his prayers, lest a 
should be thought a coward : but his few bad words are 
match'd with as few good deeds ; for a never broke any 
man's head but his own, and that was against a post when 
he was drunk. They will steal any thing, and call it purchase. 

22-25. As prose in Ff. Camb | Exit Ff. 

27. \Exeunt all but Boy] Globe 31. antics | Antiques Ff. 

22. duke: commander (Lat. dux). — men of mould: men of earth. 

25. bawcock : fine fellow. Fr. beau coq. Cf. IV, i, 44. — ' Chuck ' 
(corrupted from ' chick ') is the term of endearment Macbeth uses to 
Lady Macbeth after the murder of Duncan, Macbeth, III, ii, 45. 

29. swashers : bullying braggarts. Cf. As You Like It, I, iii, 122. 

31. antics : buffoons. The word is from 'antic,' or 'antique' (Lat. 
antiquus), in the sense of 'old-fashioned,' and so 'odd,' 'fantastic' 

32. white-liver'd : cowardly. Cf . The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 
86-87 : "cowards . . . Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk." 

41. purchase : acquisition. Thieves' euphemism for 'stolen goods.' 



66 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Bardolph stole a lute-case, bore it twelve leagues, and 
sold it for three half-pence. Nym and Bardolph are sworn 
brothers in niching ; and in Calais they stole a fire-shovel : 
I knew by that piece of service the men would carry coals. 
They would have me as familiar with men's pockets as their 
gloves or their handkerchers : which makes much against 
my manhood, if I should take from another's pocket to put 
into mine ; for it is plain pocketing up of wrongs. I must 
leave them, and seek some better service : their villainy 
goes against my weak stomach, and therefore I must cast 
it up. [Exit] 

Re-enter Fluellen, Gower following 

Gower. Captain Fluellen, you must come presently to 
the mines ; the Duke of Gloucester would speak with you. 

Fluellen. To the mines ! tell you the duke, it is not 
so good to come to the mines ; for, look you, the mines is 
not according to the disciplines of the war : the concavi- 
ties of it is not sufficient ; for, look you, th' athversary — 
you may discuss unto the duke, look you — is digt himself 

44. Calais Pope | Callice F1F2F3 53. Re-enter . . . Steevens | Enter 
I Calice F4. Gower Ff. 

43-44. sworn brothers. See note on II, i, 11. 

45. ' To carry coals ' was an Elizabethan slang phrase for ' to do 
any menial service,' and so, by implication, 'to put up with an affront.' 
Cf. Ro?neo and Juliet, I, i, 1 : " o' my word, we '11 not carry coals." 

49. pocketing up of wrongs : putting up with insults. Cf. the 
modern 'pocketing affronts.' 'Wrongs' is here used punningly in 
the sense of (r) 'insults,' and (2) 'wrong actions,' as in I, ii, 27. 

57. The touch of pedantry in Fluellen is delightful. 

59. digt himself : has dug his own mines. This matter of mining 
and countermining is from Holinshed : 

The duke of Glocester, to whome the order of the siege was committed, 
made three mines vnder the ground ; and, approching to the wals with his 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 67 

four yard under the countermines : by Cheshu, I think a 
will plow, up all, if there is not better directions. 61 

Gower. The Duke of Gloucester, to whom the order of 
the siege is given, is altogether directed by an Irishman, a 
very valiant gentleman, i' faith. 

Fluellen. It is Captain Macmorris, is it not? 65 

Gower. I think it be. 

Fluellen. By Cheshu, he is an ass, as in the world : I 
will verify as much in his beard : he has no more direc- 
tions in the true disciplines of the wars, look you, of the 
Roman disciplines, than is a puppy-dog. 70 

Enter Macmorris and Captain Jamy 

Gower. Here a comes ; and the Scots captain, Captain 
Jamy, with him. 

Fluellen. Captain Jamy is a marvellous falorous gentle- 
man, that is certain ; and of great expedition and knowl- 
edge in th' aunchient wars, upon my particular knowledge 
of his directions : by Cheshu, he will maintain his argument 
as well as any military man in the world, in the disciplines 
of the pristine wars of the Romans. 78 

Jamy. I say gud-day, Captain Fluellen. 

Fluellen. God-den to your worship, good Captain 
James. 

65. Fluellen | Welch. Ff (and 79. Jamy | Scot. Ff (and through- 

throughout the scene). out the scene). 

engins and ordinance, would not suffer them within to take anie rest. . . . 
They with their countermining somwhat disappointed the Englishmen, and 
came to fight with them hand to hand. 

80. God-den : good evening. Cf. ' God ye good even,' As Yon 
Like It, V, i, 16. In Romeo and Juliet, I, ii, 58, Quartos and Folios 
print ' Godgigoden ' for i God give you good even.' 



68 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Gower. How now, Captain Macmorris ! have you quit 
the mines? have the pioners given o'er? 83 

Macmorris. By Chrish, la ! tish ill done ; the work ish 
give over, the trompet sound the retreat. By my hand, I 
swear, and my father's soul, the work ish ill done ; it ish 
give over : I would have blow'd up the town, so Chrish 
save me, la ! in an hour : O, tish ill done, tish ill done ; by 
my hand, tish ill done ! 89 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I beseech you now, will 
you voutsafe me, look you, a few disputations with you, as 
partly touching or concerning the disciplines of the war, 
the Roman wars, in the way of argument, look you, and 
friendly communication ; partly to satisfy my opinion, and 
partly for the satisfaction, look you, of my mind, as touch- 
ing the direction of the military discipline ; that is the 
point. 97 

Jamy. It sail be vary gud, gud feith, gud captains bath : 
and I sail quit you with gud leve, as I may pick occasion; 
that sail I, marry. 100 

Macmorris. It is no time to discourse, so Chrish save 
me : the day is hot, and the weather, and the wars, and the 
king, and the dukes : it is no time to discourse. The town 
is beseech'd, and the trumpet calls us to the breach ; and 
we talk, and, be Chrish, do nothing : 't is shame for us all : 

84. Macmorris | Irish. Ff (and throughout the scene). 

83. pioners : pioneers (old Fr. peon, ' foot-soldier '). For the form, 
cf. ' mutiner,' Coriolanus, I, i, 254 ; ' enginer,' Hainlet, III, iv, 206. 

99. quit you with gud leve : with your permission answer you. 

104. beseech'd. Probably Captain Macmorris means not that the 
town is ' besieged,' for the siege has been going on for some time, 
but that it is summoned or challenged to surrender. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 69 

so God sa' me, 't is shame to stand still ; it is shame, by 
my hand : and there is throats to be cut, and works to be 
done ; and there ish nothing done, so Chrish sa' me, la ! 108 

Jamy. By the mess, ere theise eyes of mine take them- 
selves to slomber, I '11 de gud service, or I '11 lig i' the 
grund for it ; ay, or go to death ; and I '11 pay't as valor- 
ously as I may, that sail I suerly do, that is the breff and 
the long. Marry, I wad full fain heard some question 
'tween you tway. 114 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, I think, look you, under 
your correction, there is not many of your nation — 

Macmorris. Of my nation ! What ish my nation ? Ish a 
villain, and a bastard, and a knave, and a rascal? What ish 
my nation? Who talks of my nation? 119 

Fluellen. Look you, if you take the matter otherwise 
than is meant, Captain Macmorris, peradventure I shall 
think you do not use me with that affability as in discretion 
you ought to use me, look you ; being as good a man as 
yourself, both in the disciplines of war, and in the derivation 
of my birth, and in other particularities. 125 

Macmorris. I do not know you so good a man as myself : 
so Chrish save me, I will cut off your head. 

Gower. Gentlemen both, you will mistake each other. 

Jamy. A ! that's a foul fault. \A parley sounded '] 

Gower. The town sounds a parley. 130 

113. heard Ff | hear Camb. 129. A ! | A, Ff | Au, Hanmer. — 

118. rascal? | Rascall. Ff | rascal. [A parley sounded} Rowe | A par- 
Camb Delius | rascal — Clar Globe. ley Ff. 

iio-iii. lig i' the grund : lie on the ground. 
112-113. the breff and the long : the long and the short of it. 
113. question : talk, conversation. Cf. Ki>ig Lear, IV, iii, 26 ; As 
You Like Lt, III, iv, 39; Jiclius Ccesar> IV, iii, 165. 



;o THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Fluellen. Captain Macmorris, when there is more bet- 
ter opportunity to be requir'd, look you, I will be so bold 
as to tell you I know the disciplines of war ; and there is 
an end. [Exeunt] 

Scene III. The same. Before the gates 

The Governor and some Citizens on the walls ; the English 
forces below. Eitter King Henry and his train 

King Henry. How yet resolves the governor of the town ? 
This is the latest parle we will admit : 
Therefore to our best mercy give yourselves ; 
Or, like to men proud of destruction, 

Defy us to our worst : for, as I am a soldier, 5 

A name that, in my thoughts, becomes me best, 
If I begin the battery once again, 
I will not leave the half-achieved Harfleur 
Till in her ashes she lie buried. 

The gates of mercy shall be all shut up ; 10 

And the flesh'd soldier, rough' and hard of heart, 
In liberty of bloody hand shall range 
With conscience wide as hell ; mowing like grass 
Your fresh fair virgins and your flow'ring infants. 
What is it then to me, if impious war, 15 

134. [Exeunt] Rowe | Exit Ff. . . . train | Enter the King and all 

Scene III Hanmer | Scene IV his Traine before the Gates Ff. 
Pope I Scene II Dyce. — The same 14. fresh fair | fresh faire Ff | fresh- 

. . . below Globe | Ff omit. — Enter fair Steevens Camb. 

10. gates of mercy. Cf. 'gate of mercy,' j Henry VI, I, iv, 177. 

n. flesh'd : made fierce, as one who has tasted blood. See note, 
II, iv, 50. Probably the sense of being seasoned or hardened by acts 
of cruelty is also involved. Cf. Richard III, IV, iii, 6. 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 7 1 

Array'd in flames, like to the prince of fiends, 

Do, with his smirch'd complexion, all fell feats 

Enlink'd to waste and desolation ? 

What is 't to me, when you yourselves are cause, 

If your pure maidens fall into the hand 20 

Of hot and forcing violation ? 

What rein can hold licentious wickedness 

When down the hill he holds his fierce career? 

We may as bootless spend our vain command 

Upon th' enraged soldiers in their spoil, 25 

As send precepts to the leviathan 

To come ashore. Therefore, you men of Harfleur, 

Take pity of your town and of your people, 

Whiles yet my soldiers are in my command ; 

Whiles yet the cool and temperate wind of grace 30 

O'erblows the filthy and contagious clouds 

Of heady murder, spoil, and villainy. 

If not, why, in a moment look to see 

The blind and bloody soldier with foul hand 

Defile the locks of your shrill-shrieking daughters ; 35 

Your fathers taken by the silver beards, 

And their most reverend heads dash'd to the walls; 

Your naked infants spitted upon pikes, 

Whiles the mad mothers with their howls confus'd 

Do break the clouds, as did the wives of Jewry 40 

26-27. As... ashore | one line in Ff. headdy F2 I deadly Steevens. 
32. heady F3F4 I headly Fi | 35. Defile Rowe | Desire Ff. 

26. precepts : legal summons. Accented here on second syllable. 

28. Shakespeare has both 'take pity of and 'take pity on.' 

31. O'erblows: blows away. Cf. Richard II, III, ii, 190. 

32. heady : violent, impetuous. Cf. ' heady currance,' I, i, 34. 



72 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

At Herod's bloody-hunting slaughtermen. 
What say you? will you yield, and this avoid? 
Or, guilty in defence, be thus destroy'd? 

Governor. Our expectation hath this day an end : 
The Dauphin, whom of succours we entreated, 45 

Returns us, that his powers are yet not ready 
To raise so great a siege. Therefore, great king, 
We yield our town and lives to thy soft mercy. 
Enter our gates ; dispose of us and ours ; 
For we no longer are defensible. 50 

King Henry. Open your gates. Come, uncle Exeter, 
Go you and enter Harfleur ; there remain, 
And fortify it strongly 'gainst the French : 
Use mercy to them all. For us, dear uncle, 
The winter coming on, and sickness growing 55 

Upon our soldiers, we '11 retire to Calais. 
To-night in Harfleur will we be your guest ; 
To-morrow for the march are we addrest. 

[Flourish. The King and his train enter the town] 

43. After this line Ff have Enter 47. great Ff | dread Qq. 

Governour. 58. [Flourish . . . enter the town] 

45. succours Ff | succour Qq. Globe Camb | Flourish, and enter 

46. yet not Ff | not yet Qq. the Towne Ff. 

41. The Massacre of the Innocents was one of the most famous 
incidents represented in the old miracle plays. 

45-49. " To whome the Dolphin answered, that the kings power 
was not yet assembled in such number as was convenient to raise so 
great a siege. This answer being brought unto the capteins within 
the towne, they rendered it up to the king of England, after that the 
third daie was expired." — Holinshed. 

50. defensible : capable of being defended. Active form with 
passive sense. Cf. 2 Henry IV, II, iii, 38. 

55. " The dead time of the winter approached." — Holinshed. 



scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 73 

Scene IV. The French King's palace 

Enter Katharine and Alice 

Katharine. Alice, tu as ete en Angleterre, et tu paries 
bien le langage. 

Alice. Un peu, madame. 

Katharine. Je te prie, m'enseignez ; il fautque j'apprenne 
a parler. Comment appelez-vous la main en Anglois ? 5 

Alice. La main? elle est appelee de hand. 

Katharine. De hand. Et les doigts? 

Alice. Les doigts? ma foi, j'oublie les doigts; mais je 
me souviendrai. Les doigts? je pense qu'ils sont appeles 
de fingres ; oui, de fingres. 10 

Katharine. La main, de hand ; les doigts, de fingres. 
Je pense que je suis le bon ecolier ; j'ai gagne deux mots 
d'Anglois vitement. Comment appelez-vous les ongles? 

Scene IV Capell | Scene V Pope Enter Katharine and Alice | 

I Scene III Dyce. Enter Katherine Ff | Enter K. and 

' The French Kis^s^a/ace Globe Alice Qq. 
. I The French Court Theobald | Roan. 1. paries bien Warburton | bien 

A Room in the Palace Capell |Ff omit. parlas Fi | parte fort bon Qq. 

Scene IV. Hanmer and many modern editors reject this scene 
as not Shakespeare's. Its dramatic purpose is not very obvious, 
though to a certain extent it prepares for the courtship scene in the 
last act of the play. There is something of humour, too, in the com- 
pliments Alice bestows upon the princess in assuring her that she 
speaks English as well as the English themselves. And there is still 
more of humor implied in the act of thus preparing a conquest of 
France by introducing a French princess learning to speak English. 

Enter Katharine. Katharine was the daughter of Charles VI 
and Isabel the Queen. She was married to Henry V and became 
the mother of Henry VI. After Henry V's death she married a 
Welsh gentleman, Owen Tudor, and their son, Edmund Tudor, was 
the father of Henry VII, the founder of the Tudor dynasty. 



74 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Alice. Les ongles? nous les appelons de nails. 

Katharine. De nails. Ecoutez ; dites-moi, si je parle 
bien : de hand, de fingres, et de nails. 16 

Alice. C'est bien dit, madame ; il est fort bon Anglois. 

Katharine. Dites-moi 1' Anglois pour le bras. 

Alice. De arm, madame. 

Katharine. Et le coude? 20 

Alice. De elbow. 

Katharine. De elbow. Je m'en fais la repetition de 
tous les mots que vous m'avez appris des a present. 

Alice. II est trop difficile, madame, comme je pense. 

Katharine. Excusez-moi, Alice ; ecoutez : de hand, de 
fingres, de nails, de arm, de bilbow. 26 

Alice. De elbow, madame. 

Katharine. O Seigneur Dieu, je m'en oublie ! de elbow. 
Comment appelez-vous le col? 

Alice. De neck, madame. 30 

Katharine. De nick. Et le menton? 

Alice. De chin. 

Katharine. De sin. Le col, de nick ; le menton, de sin. 

Alice. Oui. Sauf votre honneur, en verite, vous pro- 
noncez les mots aussi droit que les natifs d'Angleterre. 35 

Katharine. Je ne doute point d'apprendre, par la grace 
de Dieu, et en peu de temps. 

Alice. N'avez-vous pas deja oublie" ce que je vous ai 
enseigne? 

Katharine. Non, je reciterai a vous promptement : de 
hand, de fingres, de mails, — 41 

14. nous Globe Camb | Ff omit. 31, 33, 45. nick Fi | Neck F2 

18. TAnglois pour Fi I en Anglois F3F4. 
F2F3F4. 38. pas deja I y desia Ff. 

30. neck I Nick Fi. 41. de mails | de Maylees Fi. 



scene v KING HENRY THE FIFTH 75 

Alice. De nails, madame. 

Katharine. De nails, de arm, de ilbow. 

Alice. Sauf votre honneur, de elbow. 

Katharine. Ainsi dis-je ; de elbow, de nick, et de sin. 
Comment appelez-vous le pied et la robe? 46 

Alice. De foot, madame ; et de coun. 

Katharine. De foot et de coun ! O Seigneur Dieu ! ce 
sont mots de son mauvais, corruptible, gros, et impudique, 
et non pour les dames d'honneur d'user : je ne voudrais 
prononcer ces mots devant les seigneurs de France pour 
tout le monde. Foh ! le foot et le coun ! Neanmoins, je 
reciterai une autre fois ma lecon ensemble : de hand, de 
fingres, de nails, de arm, de elbow, de nick, de sin, de foot, 
de coun. 55 

Alice. Excellent, madame ! 

Katharine. C'est assez pour une fois : allons-nous a 
diner. [Exeunt] 

Scene V. The same 

Enter the King of France, the Dauphin, the Duke of 
Bourbon, the Constable of France, and others 

French King. 'T is certain he hath pass'd the river 

Somme. 
Constable. And if he be not fought withal, my lord, 

52. Foh ! I fo Fi I il faut F2F3F4. I Scene IV Hanmer. 

58. [Exeunt] Exit Ff. Enter . . . a?id others Theobald 

Scene V Capell | Scene VI Pope | Ff omit the Duke of Bourbon. 

Enter . . . Duke of Bourbon. He was maternal uncle of 
Charles VI. Taken prisoner at Agincourt, he died in England. 
1-2. Holinshed thus describes the attitude of the French king : 
The French king being at Rone, and hearing that king Henrie was 
passed the riuer of Some, was much displeased therewith, and assembling 



y6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Let us not live in France ; let us quit all, 
And give our vineyards to a barbarous people. 

Dauphin. O Dieu vivant ! shall a few sprays of us, 5 
The emptying of our fathers' luxury, 
Our scions, put in wild and savage stock, 
Spirt up so suddenly into the clouds, 
And overlook their grafters? 

Bourbon. Normans, but bastard Normans, Norman 
bastards ! 10 

Mort de ma vie ! if they march along 
Unfought withal, but I will sell my dukedom, 

7. scions I Syens Ff. 10, 32. Bourbon | Bour. Theo- 

bald I Bur. Qq | Brit. Ff. 

his councell, to the number of flue and thirtie, asked their aduise what was to 
be doone. There was amongst these hue and thirtie, his sonne the Dolphin, 
calling himselfe king of Sicill ; the dukes of Berrie and Britaine, the earl of 
Pontieu the kings yoongest sonne, and other high estates. At length thirtie 
of them agreed that the Englishmen should not depart unfought withall, and 
hue were of a contrarie opinion, but the greater number ruled. 

5. sprays : off-shoots. The reference is to William the Conqueror 
(illegitimate) and his Norman followers. 

7-9. Cf. The Winter' } s Tale, IV, iv, 92-95. — scions: cuttings. 
The Folio spelling, ' syen,' is etymologically more correct than 
'scion.' Cf. the intrusion of the letter 'c' in 'scythe,' which should 
be ' sythe ' or ' sithe.' See Skeat. 

10. In the Folios this speech, and that beginning at line 32, are 
given to 'Brit.' But the Duke of Britaine does not appear elsewhere 
in the play, and Theobald was undoubtedly right in assigning these 
speeches to Bourbon. In the Quartos ' Bur.' is prefixed to the first 
speech; the second is omitted. "In Holinshed (p. 1077, ed. 1577), 
the Dukes of Berry and Britaine are mentioned as belonging to the 
French king's council, and not the Duke of Bourbon. Shakespeare 
probably first intended to introduce the Duke of Britaine, and then 
changed his mind but forgot to substitute Bour. for Brit, before the 
two speeches." — Camb. 



scene v KING HENRY THE FIFTH yy 

To buy a slobbery and a dirty farm 
In that nook-shotten isle of Albion. 

Constable. Dieu de batailles ! whence have they this 
mettle ? 1 5 

Is not their climate foggy, raw, and dull ; 
On whom, as in despite, the sun looks pale, 
Killing their fruit with frowns? Can sodden water, 
A drench for sur-rein'd jades, their barley-broth, 
Decoct their cold blood to such valiant heat? 20 

And shall our quick blood, spirited with wine, 
Seem frosty? O, for honour of our land, 
Let us not hang like roping icicles 
Upon our houses' thatch, whiles a more frosty people 
Sweat drops of gallant youth in our rich fields ! — 25 

Poor we may call them in their native lords ! 

Dauphin. By faith and honour, 
Our madams mock at us, and plainly say 
Our mettle is bred out and they will give 
Their bodies to the lust of English youth, 30 

13. slobbery | slobbry Ff | foggy 23. roping Ff | frozen Qq. 

Qq Pope. — dirty | durtie Fi. 25. gallant youth Ff | youthful 

14. nook-shotten Ff | short nooke blood Qq | gallant blood Pope. 
Qq I hook-shotten Rowe | short, 26. we may F2F3F4 I we Fi. 
nooky Pope. 

14. nook-shotten. Either (1) 'thrust into a corner, away from the 
rest of the world ' (Knight) ; or (2) ' shooting into capes, promon- 
tories, and nooks of land.' The latter gives the very figure of Great 
Britain. Marlowe has the expression 'blood-shotten.' 

19. sur-rein'd : over-ridden. It was common to give over-ridden 
or sick horses a ' mash ' of ground malt and hot water mixed. — 
barley-broth. A contemptuous description of beer or ale by a " na- 
tive of a rich wine-producing country." — Verity. 

23. roping : hanging down like ropes. " Then isycles hung roping 
down." — Golding's Ovid (1 565-1 575). 



78 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

To new- store France with bastard warriors. 

Bourbon. They bid us to the English dancing-schools, 
And teach lavoltas high and swift corantos ; 
Saying our grace is only in our heels, 
And that we are most lofty runaways. 35 

French King. Where is Montjoy the herald? speed 
him hence ; 
Let him greet England with our sharp defiance. 
Up, princes ! and, with spirit of honour edg'd 
More sharper than your swords, hie to the field : 
Charles Delabreth, high constable of France ; 40 

You Dukes of Orleans, Bourbon, and of Berri, 
Aleneon, Brabant, Bar, and Burgundy ; 
Jaques Chatillon, Rambures, Vaudemont, 
Beaumont, Grandpr£, Roussi, and Fauconberg, 
Foix, Lestrale, Bouciqualt, and Charolois ; 45 

High dukes, great princes, barons, lords, and knights, 
For your great seats now quit you of great shames. 
Bar Harry England, that sweeps through our land 

33. corantos Johnson | Carranto's 45. Foix Capell | Loys Ff. — Bou- 

Ff . ciqualt Theobald | Bouciquall Ff. — 

42. Burgundy | Burgonie Ff. Charolois Capell | Charaloyes F1F2F3 

43. Vaudemont | Vandemont Fi. | Charaloys F4. 

44. Fauconberg Capell (Holin- 46. knights Pope (Theobald's 
shed) I Faulcon-bridge Ff. conj.) | Kings Ff. 

33. The 'lavolta' (Ital. la volta, 'the whirl') and the 'coranto' (Fr. 
courante, Ital. coranta, ' running dance,' ' gallop ') were quick, lively 
dances, picturesquely described by Sir John Davies in his Orchestra, 
or a Poeme of Dancing, 1596. Cf. Troilus and Cressida, IV, iv, 88; 
All's Well that Ends Well, II, iii, 49 ; Twelfth Night, I, iii, 137. 

39. For the doubling of comparatives, see Abbott, § it. 

40. Delabreth : D'Albret. Shakespeare follows Holinshed. 

47. For your great seats : because of your exalted positions. — 
quit you : exonerate yourselves. Cf. II, ii, 166. 



scene v KING HENRY THE FIFTH 79 

With pennons painted in the blood of Harfleur : 

Rush on his host, as doth the melted snow 50 

Upon the valleys, whose low vassal seat 

The Alps doth spit and void his rheum upon : 

Go down upon him, — you have power enough, — 

And in a captive chariot into Rouen 

Bring him our prisoner. 

Constable. This becomes the great. 55 

Sorry am I his numbers are so few, 
His soldiers sick, and famish'd in their march ■ 
For I am sure, when he shall see our army, 
He '11 drop his heart into the sink of fear, 
And for achievement offer us his ransom. 60 

French King. Therefore, lord constable, haste on 
Montjoy ; 
And let him say to England that we send 
To know what willing ransom he will give. 
Prince Dauphin, you shall stay with us in Rouen. 

Dauphin. Not so, I do beseech your majesty. 65 

French King. Be patient ; for you shall remain with us. 
Now forth, lord constable and princes all, 
And quickly bring us word of England's fall. \_Exeunf\ 

54, 64. Rouen M alone | Rone Qq | Roan Ff. 

52. void his rheum. Cf. The Merchant of Venice, I, iii, 118. 

53-55. " Meanwhile the French nobles deuised a chariot, wherein 
they might triumphantlie conueie the king captiue to the citie of 
Paris." — Holinshed. 

54. Rouen. The Folio spelling 'Roan' (cf. 'Rone' of the Quartos 
and Holinshed in quotation above, lines 1-2) probably represents 
the Elizabethan pronunciation and suits the rhythm of the verse. 

60. Instead of achieving a victory over us, make a proposal to 
buy himself off with a ransom. 



80 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Scene VI. The English camp in Picardy 

Enter Gower and Fluellen, meeting 

Gower. How now, Captain Fluellen ! come you from 
the bridge? 

Fluellen. I assure you, there is very excellent services 
committed at the bridge. 

Gower. Is the Duke of Exeter safe? 5 

Fluellen. The Duke of Exeter is as magnanimous as 
Agamemnon ; and a man that I love and honour with my 
soul, and my heart, and my duty, and my life, and my 
living, and my uttermost power : he is not — God be praised 
and blessed ! — any hurt in the world ; but keeps the bridge 
most valiantly, with excellent discipline. There is an aun- 
cient lieutenant there at the pridge, — I think in my very 
conscience he is as valiant a man as Mark Antony ; and he 
is a man of no estimation in the world ; but I did see him 
do as gallant service. 15 

Scene VI Capell | Scene VII Enter . . . meeting Capell | Enter 

Pope I Scene V Hanmer. — The Eng- Captaines, English and Welch, Gower 

lish . . . Picardy M alone | The Eng- and Fluellen F1F2. 
lish Camp Theobald | Ff omit. 8. life Qq Rowe Globe | Hue Ff. 

1-4. Holinshed's description of the keeping of the bridge : 

The king of England (hearing that the Frenchmen approched, and that 
there was an other riuer for him to passe with his armie by a bridge, and 
doubting least if the same bridge should be broken, it would be greatlie to 
his hinderance.) appointed certeine capteins with their bands, to go thither 
with all speed before him, and to take possession thereof, and so to keepe it, 
till his comming thither. Those that were sent, finding the Frenchmen busie 
to breake downe their bridge, assailed them so vigorouslie, that they dis- 
comfited them, and took and slue them ; and so the bridge was preserued till 
the king came, and passed the riuer with his whole armie. 

11-12. auncient lieutenant. See note on II, i, 3. 



scene vi KING HENRY THE FIFTH 8 1 

Gower. What do you call him? 
Fluellen. He is call'd Aunchient Pistol. 
Gower. I know him not. 

Enter Pistol 

Fluellen. Here is the man. 

Pistol. Captain, I thee beseech to do me favours : 
The Duke of Exeter doth love thee well. 21 

Fluellen. Ay, I praise God ; and I have merited some 
love at his hands. 

Pistol. Bardolph, a soldier, firm and sound of heart, 
And of buxom valour, hath, by cruel fate, 25 

And giddy Fortune's furious fickle wheel, 
That goddess blind, 
That stands upon the rolling, restless stone — 

Fluellen. By your patience, Aunchient Pistol. For- 
tune is painted blind, with a muffler afore his eyes, to signify 
to you that Fortune is blind ; and she is painted also with 
a wheel, to signify to you, which is the moral of it, that she 
is turning, and inconstant, and mutability, and variation : 
and her foot, look you, is fix'd upon a spherical stone, 
which rolls, and rolls, and rolls. In good truth, the poet 
makes a most excellent description of it : Fortune is an 
excellent moral. 37 

20-21 ; 24-28. Prose in Ff. 30. his Ff | her Qq Rowe Globe. 

25. buxom. The Middle English btihsum (' bough-some,' i.e. easily 
bent) means 'pliant,' 'obedient.' From this sense came 'unresisting' 
(cf. Milton's and Dryden's 'buxom air'), and so 'good-natured,' and, 
in a physical sense, ' plump and comely.' 

30. his. Most modern editors alter this to ' her.' " But the mis- 
take was no doubt intended, confusions of pronoun gender being 
constant in Welsh-English." — Herford. 



82 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Pistol. Fortune is Bardolph's foe, and frowns on him ; 
For he hath stolen a pax, and hanged must a be, 
A damned death ! 40 

Let gallows gape for dog ; let man go free, 
And let not hemp his windpipe suffocate : 
But Exeter hath given the doom of death 
For pax of little price. 

Therefore, go speak; the duke will hear thy voice; 45 

And let not Bardolph's vital thread be cut 
With edge of penny cord and vile reproach : 
Speak, captain, for his life, and I will thee requite. 

Fluellen. Aunchient Pistol, I do partly understand 
your meaning. 50 

Pistol. Why, then rejoice therefore. 

Fluellen. Certainly, aunchient, it is not a thing to re- 
joice at : for if, look you, he were my brother, I would 
desire the duke to use his good pleasure, and put him to 
execution ; for discipline ought to be us'd. 55 

38-48. Prose in Ff. 

38. -" The first line of Pistol's speech . . . conveys an allusion to 
the famous old ballad, ' Fortune my Foe,' which begins, ' Fortune 
my foe, why dost thou frown on me ?' " — Staunton. 

39. Another Alexandrine or iambic hexameter line. Such lines oc- 
cur frequently in moral plays and old plays generally. "A souldiour 
tooke a pix out of a church, for which he was apprehended, and the 
king not once remooued 1 till the box was restored, and the offendor 
strangled." — Holinshed. For 'pix' in this passage Shakespeare sub- 
stitutes 'pax,' which gives occasion for the equivoque in line 44. A 
'pix' ('pyx') is the box in which the host or consecrated wafer is 
preserved; a 'pax' was a small piece of metal or wood, bearing a 
picture of Christ or of the Crucifixion, "solemnly tendred to all 
people to kiss." — Fuller. 

1 left the place. 



scene vi KING HENRY THE FIFTH 83 

Pistol. Die and be damn'd ! and figo for thy friendship ! 

Fluellen. It is well. 

Pistol. The fig of Spain ! [_Exif\ 

Fluellen. Very good. 

Gower. Why, this is an arrant counterfeit rascal; I 
remember him now, a cutpurse. - 61 

Fluellen. I '11 assure you, a utter 'd as prave words at 
the pridge as you shall see in a summer's day. But it is 
very well ; what he has spoke to me, that is well, I warrant 
you, when time is serve. 65 

Gower. Why, 't is a gull, a fool, a rogue, that now and 
then goes to the wars, to grace himself at his return into 
London under the form of a soldier. And such fellows are 
perfect in the great commanders' names : and they will 
learn you by rote where services were done ; at such and 
such a sconce, at such a breach, at such a convoy ; who 
came off bravely, who was shot, who disgrac'd, what terms 
the enemy stood on ; and this they con perfectly in the 

69. perfect Qq Rowe | perfit Ff. 73. perfectly Qq Rowe | perfitly Ff. 

56. figo. This is the Spanish for 'fig,' used as a term of contempt. 
In The Merry Wives of Windsor, I, iii, 33, we have the Italian form 
fico : " ' Steal ! ' foh ! a fico for the phrase ! " 

58. ' The fig of Spain ! ' is probably but a variation on ' figo ' in 
line 56, but Steevens reads here a sinister allusion to a Spanish 
custom of giving poisoned figs to an enemy. 

71. sconce : earthwork, fortification. Cf. German schanze. The 
word is probably adapted from Old Fr. esconse (Lat. absconsa, ab- 
scojidd), 'hiding-place,' whence 'ensconce.' ' Sconce' is also applied 
to a helmet (punningly in The Comedy of Errors, II, ii, 37), collo- 
quially to the head itself (cf. Hamlet, V, i, 1 10). ' Sconce ' also means 
' lantern ' and ' brass candlestick in the form of a bracket.' 

73. stood on: insisted upon. — con: learn by heart. For the inter- 
esting history of this word, see Murray. 



84 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

phrase of war, which they trick up with new-tun'd oaths : 
and what a beard of the general's cut and a horrid suit of 
the camp will do among foaming bottles and ale-wash'd 
wits, is wonderful to be thought on. But you must learn to 
know such slanders of the age, or else you may be marvel- 
lously mistook. 79 
Fluellen. I tell you what, Captain Gower ; I do per- 
ceive he is not the man that he would gladly make show to 
the world he is : if I find a hole in his coat, I will tell him 
my mind. \_Drum heard~\ Hark you, the king is coming, 
and I must speak with him from the pridge. 

Drum and colours. Enter King Henry, Gloucester, 
and Soldiers 

God pless your majesty ! 85 

King Henry. How now, Fluellen ! cam'st thou from the 
bridge ? 

74. new-tun'd | new-turned Pope 85. Scene VIII Pope | Scene VI 
I new-coined Collier. Hanmer. — Drum and colours Ff. — 

75. suit I sute Ff I shout Qq Ca- Enter King . . . and Soldiers Ma- 
pell, lone I Enter the King and his poore 

83. [Drum heard] Capell. Souldiers Ff. 

74. new-tun'd : of a new tune, new-fangled. 

75. beard of the general's cut. The Elizabethans were very partic- 
ular about the cut of their beards. Certain ranks and callings had 
their appropriate style. Cf. As You Like It, V, iv, 73-75. — 'Suit' 
was pronounced ' shoot ' in the sixteenth century. Cf. the Quarto 
reading 'shout.' In Love's Labour's Lost, IV, i, 109, there is a pun 
on 'suitor' and 'shooter.' 

78. slanders of : scandals to. Nothing would be more common in 
the Elizabethan time than such blustering braggarts as Pistol. They 
are the subject of much excellent satire. Cf. Captain Bobadil in 
Jonson's Every Man in His Humour. 

84. from : as one who has just come with news from. 



scene vi KING HENRY THE FIFTH 85 

Fluellen. Ay, so please your majesty. The Duke of 
Exeter has very gallantly maintain 'd the pridge : the French 
is gone off, look you ; and there is gallant and most prave 
passages : marry, th' athversary was have possession of the 
pridge; but he is enforc'd to retire, and the Duke of Exeter 
is master of the pridge : I can tell your majesty, the duke 
is a prave man. 

King Henry. What men have you lost, Fluellen? 95 

Fluellen. The perdition of th' athversary hath been 
very great, reasonable great : marry, for my part, I think 
the duke hath lost never a man, but one that is like to be 
executed for robbing a church, one Bardolph, if your majesty 
know the man : his face is all bubukles, and whelks, and 
knobs, and flames o' fire ; and his lips blows at his nose, 
and it is like a coal of fire, sometimes plue and sometimes 
red ; but his nose is executed, and his fire 's out. 103 

King Henry. We would have all such offenders so cut 
off : and we give express charge that, in our marches 
through the country, there be nothing compell'd from the 
villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the French 
upbraided or abus'd in disdainful language ; for when lenity 
and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the 
soonest winner. no 

100. bubukles Ff | pumples Qq. 108. lenity Qq Rowe | Leuitie Fi 

104-110. As verse in Qq Pope. | Levity F2F3F4. 

100. bubukles. " A confusion of ' bubo ' and ' carbuncle ' (put into 
the mouth of Fluellen)." — Murray. — whelks : pustules. A diminu- 
tive of ' wheal.' Cf . Chaucer's description of the Somnour in The 
Prologue, The Canterbury Tales: 

That hadde a fyr-reed cherubinnes face . . . 
That him mighte helpen of his whelkes whyte, 
Nor of the knobbes sittinge on his chekes. 



86 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act in 

Tucket. Enter Montjoy 

Montjoy. You know me by my habit. 

King Henry. Well then I know thee : what shall I know 
of thee ? 

Montjoy. My master's mind. 

King Henry. Unfold it. 115 

Montjoy. Thus says my king : Say thou to Harry of 
England : Though we seem'd dead, we did but sleep ; 
advantage is a better soldier than rashness. Tell him, we 
could have rebuk'd him at Harfleur, but that we thought not 
good to bruise an injury till it were full ripe : now we speak 
upon our cue, and our voice is imperial. England shall 
repent his folly, see his weakness, and admire our suffer- 
ance. Bid him therefore consider of his ransom ; which 
must proportion the losses we have borne, the subjects we 
have lost, the disgrace we have digested ; which, in weight 
to re-answer, his pettiness would bow under. For our losses, 
his exchequer is too poor ; for the effusion of our blood, 
the muster of his kingdom too faint a number ; and, for 

116-133. Pope prints as verse. 121. cue | kue Qq | Q. Ff. 

in. Tucket: a peculiar series of notes on a trumpet, "which 
beinge hearde simply of itselfe, without addition, commands nothing 
but marching after the leader." — Markham. Probably the word is 
from the Ital. toccata. — habit: dress. He refers to his richly em- 
blazoned tabard, or herald's coat, which, by the laws of war, insured 
his safety even among foes. 

120. The implied image is of a boil or tumor, which is best let 
alone till it has come to a head. 

121. upon our cue : at the proper moment. " This phrase the 
authour learned among players, and has imparted it to kings." — 
Johnson. See Murray for theories of the etymology of ' cue.' 



scene vi KING HENRY THE FIFTH 87 

our disgrace, his own person, kneeling at our feet, but a 
weak and worthless satisfaction. To this add defiance : and 
tell him, for conclusion, he hath betray'd his followers, 
whose condemnation is pronounc'd. So far my king and 
master ; so much my office. 

King Henry. What is thy name? I know thy quality. 
Montjoy. Montjoy. 135 

King Henry. Thou dost thy office fairly. Turn thee 
back, 
And tell thy king, I do not seek him now ; 
But could be willing to march on to Calais 
Without impeachment : for, to say the sooth, 
Though 't is no wisdom to confess so much 140 

Unto an enemy of craft and vantage, 
My people are with sickness much enfeebled ; 
My numbers lessen'd ; and those few I have, 
Almost no better than so many French ; 
Who when they were in health, I tell thee, herald, 145 

I thought upon one pair of English legs 
Did march three Frenchmen. Yet, forgive me, God, 
That I do brag thus ! This your air of France 
Hath blown that vice in me ; I must repent. 
Go, therefore, tell thy master here I am ; 150 

138. Calais Rowe | Callice Fi. 145. health Ff | heart Qq. 

135. Montjoy. Properly the title of the chief herald of France. 

139. impeachment : hindrance, impediment. Fr. empechement. 
141. An enemy both cunning in arts of strategy and having the 

advantage in ground and numbers. A sarcastic echo of Montjoy's 
"advantage is a better soldier than rashness." 

149. blown that vice in me : puffed me up with that vice. The 
next scene illustrates the vanity and boastfulness of the French. 



88 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

My ransom is this frail and worthless trunk, 

My army but a weak and sickly guard : 

Yet, God before, tell him we will come on, 

Though France himself and such another neighbour 

Stand in our way. There 's for thy labour, Montjoy. 155 

Go, bid thy master well advise himself : 

If we may pass, we will ; if we be hinder'd, 

We shall your tawny ground with your red blood 

Discolour : and so, Montjoy, fare you well. 

The sum of all our answer is but this : 160 

We would not seek a battle, as we are ; 

Nor, as we are, we say we will not shun it : 

So tell your master. 

Montjoy. I shall deliver so. Thanks to your highness. 

\_Exit\ 

Gloucester. I hope they will not come upon us now. 

King Henry. We are in God's hand, brother, not in 
theirs. 166 

March to the bridge ; it now draws toward night : 
Beyond the river we '11 encamp ourselves ; 
And on to-morrow bid them march away. [Exeunt] 

164. [Exit] Rowe | Ff omit. 

153. God before: God being our guide. Cf. line 166; I, ii, 307. 
155- " When he had thus answered the herald, he gaue him a 
princelie reward, and licence to depart." — Holinshed. 

156. advise himself : think the matter over, reflect. Fr. s'aviser. 
157-159. Henry's answer is as follows in Holinshed : 

Mine intent is to doo as it pleaseth God, I will not seeke your maister 
at this time ; but if he or his seeke me, I will meet with them God willing. If 
anie of your nation attempt once to stop me in my iournie now towards Calis, 
at their jeopardie be it ; and yet wish I not anie of you so vnaduised, as to 
be the occasion that I die your tawnie ground with your red bloud. 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 89 

Scene VII. The French camp, near Agincourt 

Enter the Constable of France, the Lord Rambures, 
Orleans, Dauphin, with others 

Constable. Tut ! I have the best armour of the world. 
Would it were day ! 

Orleans. You have an excellent armour ; but let my 
horse have his due. 

Constable. It is the best horse of Europe. 5 

Orleans. Will it never be morning? 

Dauphin. My Lord of Orleans, and my lord high con- 
stable, you talk of horse and armour? 

Orleans. You are as well provided of both as any prince 
in the world. 10 

Dauphin. What a long night is this ! I will not change 
my horse with any that treads but on four pasterns. Ca, ha ! 
he bounds from the earth, as if his entrails were hairs ; le 
cheval volant, the Pegasus, chez les narines de feu ! When 

Scene VII Hanmer | Scene IX 12. pasterns F2F3F4 I postures Fi. 

Pope I Scene VI Dyce. — The French — Qa, ha ! Theobald | ch' ha Ff. 

. . . Agincourt Theobald | Ff omit. 14. chez Theobald | ches Ff | qu'il 

8. armour ? Ff | armour, — Capell. ' a Rowe | qui a Capell. 

Enter the Constable of France. ..." The cheefe leaders of 
the French host were these : the constable of France, the marshall, 
the admerall, the lord Rambures, maister of the crosbowes, and 
others of the French nobilitie." — Holinshed. The Dauphin was 
not present at the battle of Agincourt (cf. Ill, v, 62) and the Quar- 
tos, more historically accurate than the Folios, omit him from this 
scene, assigning his speeches to Bourbon. 

13. hairs. Tennis-balls were stuffed with hair. This is alluded 
to humorously in Much Ado About Nothing, III, ii, 47. 

13-14. le cheval volant : the flying horse. — chez les narines de feu : 
with nostrils breathing fire. An incorrect use of 'chez.' 



90 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

I bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk : he trots the air ; the 
earth sings when he touches it ; the basest horn of his hoof 
is more musical than the pipe of Hermes. 17 

Orleans. He 's of the colour of the nutmeg. 

Dauphin. And of the heat of the ginger. It is a beast 
for Perseus : he is pure air and fire ; and the dull elements 
of earth and water never appear in him, but only in patient 
stillness while his rider mounts him : he is, indeed, a horse ; 
and all other jades you may call beasts. 23 

Constable. Indeed, my lord, it is a most absolute and 
excellent horse. 

Dauphin. It is the prince of palfreys ; his neigh is like the 
bidding of a monarch, and his countenance enforces homage. 

Orleans. No more, cousin. 28 

Dauphin. Nay, the man hath no wit that cannot, from the 
rising of the lark to the lodging of the lamb, vary deserv'd 
praise on my palfrey : it is a theme as fluent as the sea; 
turn the sands into eloquent tongues, and my horse is argu- 
ment for them all : 't is a subject for a sovereign to reason 
on, and for a sovereign's sovereign to ride on ; and for the 
world, familiar to us and unknown, to lay apart their par- 
ticular functions, and wonder at him. I once writ a sonnet 
in his praise, and began thus : ' Wonder of nature,' — , 37 

20-21. Shakespeare has many allusions to the mediaeval doctrine 
of the four elements, earth, water, air, and fire, a right proportion of 
which was supposed to be the principle of all excellence in nature. 
The finer natures had a preponderance of air and of fire. Cf. Antoity 
and Cleopatra, V, ii, 292-293 ; Twelfth Night, II, iii, 9-10, etc. 

23. ' Jade,' as applied to a horse, is usually a term of contempt, 
but occasionally, as here, it is used without any depreciatory sense. 
Cf. ' yaud ' for ' horse ' still often heard in the north of England. 

24. absolute: perfect. Cf. Measure for Measure, V, i, 54. 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 91 

Orleans. I have heard a sonnet begin so to one's mistress. 

Dauphin. Then did they imitate that which I compos'd 
to my courser • for my horse is my mistress. 40 

Orleans. Your mistress bears well. 

Dauphin. Me well ; which is the prescript praise and 
perfection of a good and particular mistress. 

Constable. Nay, for methought yesterday your mistress 
shrewdly shook your back. 45 

Dauphin. So, perhaps, did yours. 

Constable. Mine was not bridled. 

Dauphin. O, then, belike she was old and gentle ; and 
you rode, like a kern of Ireland, your French hose off, and 
in your strait strossers. 50 

Constable. You have good judgment in horsemanship. 

Dauphin. Be warn'd by me, then : they that ride so, and 

44. Nay, for Ff | Ma foy Qq Steevens. 

49. kern : boor, peasant. Probably the word means ' light-armed 
foot-soldier,' as in Macbeth, I, ii, 13, and as such soldiers were usually 
from the poorer classes among the 'wild Irish,' the word came to 
have the meaning it has here. It was also applied to the Scottish 
Highlanders, as, collectively, in Elspeth's song in The Antiquary : 

My horse shall ride through ranks sae rude 

As through the moorland fern, 
Then ne'er let the gentle Norman blude 

Grow cauld for Highland kerne. 

Cf. 2 Henry VI, IV, ix, 26; Richard II, II, i, 156. — French hose: 
loose, wide breeches. "The common french-hose (as they list to 
call them) contayneth length, breadth, and sideness sufficient, and 
is made very round." — The Anatotnie of Abuses. Cf. Macbeth, II, 
iii, 16; The Merchant of Venice, I, ii, 79-81. 

50. strait strossers : tight trousers. This is of course a humorous 
reference to the bare legs of the Irish kerns who "wear no Breeches, 
any more than the Scotch Highlanders do." — Theobald. 



92 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

ride not warily, fall into foul bogs. I had rather have my 
horse to my mistress. 

Constable. I had as lief have my mistress a jade. 55 

Dauphin. I tell thee, constable, my mistress wears his 
own hair. 

Constable. I could make as true a boast as that, if I 
had a sow to my mistress. . 59 

Dauphin. ' Le chien est retourne a son propre vomisse- 
ment, et la truie lavee au bourbier ' : thou mak'st use of 
any thing. 

Constable. Yet do I not use my horse for my mistress ; 
or any such proverb, so little kin to the purpose. 64 

Rambures. My lord constable, the armour that I saw in 
your tent to-night, are those stars or suns upon it ? 

Constable. Stars, my lord. 

Dauphin. Some of them will fall to-morrow, I hope. 

Constable. And yet my sky shall not want. 69 

Dauphin. That may be, for you bear a many superflu- 
ously, and 'twere more honour some were away. 

Constable. Even as your horse bears your praises ; who 
would trot as well, were some of your brags dismounted.' 

Dauphin. Would I were able to load him with his desert ! 
Will it never be day? I will trot to-morrow a mile, and my 
way shall be pav'd with English faces. 76 

55. lief Capell | Hue Fi | live F2 I 61. et Rowe | est Ff. — truie 
lieve F3F4. Rowe | leuye Ff. 

56. his Ff I her Qq Pope. 70. a many | many Pope. 

56-57. Shakespeare has many satirical allusions to the custom of 
wearing false hair, introduced into England in Elizabeth's reign. Cf. 
The Merchant of Venice, III, ii, 88-98; Lovers Labour's Lost, IV, 
iii, 259; Timon of Athens, IV, iii, 144; Sonnets, Lxvni, 5-8. 

60-61. *Le chien . . . bourbier.' 2 Peter, ii, 22 (Olivetan version). 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 93 

Constable. I will not say so, for fear I should be fac'd 
out of my way : but I would it were morning ; for I would 
fain be about the ears of the English. 79 

Rambures. Who will go to hazard with me for twenty 
prisoners? 

Constable. You must first go yourself to hazard, ere you 
have them. 

Dauphin. 'T is midnight ; I '11 go arm myself. [Exit] 

Orleans. The Dauphin longs for morning. 85 

Rambures. He longs to eat the English. 

Constable. I think he will eat all he kills. 

Orleans. By the white hand of my lady, he 's a gallant 
prince. 

Constable. Swear by her foot, that she may tread out 
the oath. 91 

Orleans. He is simply the most active gentleman of 
France. 

Constable. Doing is activity ; and he will still be doing. 

Orleans. He never did harm, that I heard of. 95 

Constable. Nor will do none to-morrow : he will keep 
that good name still. 

Orleans. I know him to be valiant. 

Constable. I was told that by one that knows him better 
than you. 100 

Orleans. What 's he? 

Constable. Marry, he told me so himself ; and he said 
he car'd not who knew it. 

Orleans. He needs not ; it is no hidden virtue in him. 

Constable. By my faith, sir, but it is ; never any body 

80. go to hazard with me for : wager with me. Cf. IV, Prologue, 18-19. 
87. Cf. Beatrice's flout, Much Ado About A T othing, I, i, 42-45. 



94 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

saw it but his lackey : 't is a hooded valour; and when it 
appears, it will bate. 

Orleans. Ill will never said well. 

Constable. I will cap that proverb with * There is flattery 
in friendship.' no 

Orleans. And I will take up that with * Give the devil 
his due/ 

Constable. Well plac'd : there stands your friend for 
the devil : have at the very eye of that proverb, with ' A 
pox of the devil.' 115 

Orleans. You are the better at proverbs, by how much 
'A fool's bolt is soon shot.' 

Constable. You have shot over. 

Orleans. 'T is not the first time you were overshot. 

Enter a Messenger 

Messenger. My lord high constable, the English lie within 
fifteen hundred paces of your tents. 121 

Constable. Who hath measured the ground? 
Messenger. The Lord Grandpre. 

120. Scene X Pope | Scene VIII Hanmer. 

106-107. This pun depends upon the equivocal use of ' bate/ 
When a hawk is unhooded, her first action is to 'bate,' that is, 'beat 
the wings,' or 'flap the wings' before flying. Cf. Romeo and Juliet, 
III, ii, 14. The Constable insinuates that the Dauphin's courage, 
when he prepares for encounter, will ' bate,' in the sense of ' abate.' 

109. ' Capping ' proverbs was a common Elizabethan amusement. 

117. *A fool's bolt is soon shot/ A common proverb from the thir- 
teenth century to the eighteenth. A ' bolt ' was a short, thick, blunt 
arrow, for shooting near objects, and so requiring little or no skill. 

119. overshot: beaten in the wit-contest. 'Overshot' was also 
Elizabethan slang for ' intoxicated.' 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 95 

Constable. A valiant and most expert gentleman. Would 
it were day ! Alas, poor Harry of England ! he longs not. 
for the dawning as we do. 126 

Orleans. What a wretched and peevish fellow is this king 
of England, to mope with his fat-brain 'd followers so far out 
of his knowledge ! 

Constable. If the English had any apprehension, they 
would run away. 

Orleans. That they lack; for if their heads had any 
intellectual armour, they could never wear such heavy 
head-pieces. 134 

Rambures. That island of England breeds very valiant 
creatures \ their mastiffs are of unmatchable courage. 

Orleans. Foolish curs, that run winking into the mouth 
of a Russian bear and have their heads crush'd like rotten 
apples ! You may as well say, that 's a valiant flea that dare 
eat his breakfast on the lip of a lion. 140 

Constable. Just, just ; and the men do sympathize with 
the mastiffs in robustious and rough coming-on, leaving 
their wits with their wives : and then give them great meals 
of beef, and iron and steel, they will eat like wolves, and 
fight like devils. 145 

127. peevish : foolish, thoughtless. Cf. Comedy of Errors, IV, i, 
93 ; Cymbeline, I, vi, 54 ; Richard III, I, iii, 194. " None of the ety- 
mological conjectures hitherto offered are compatible with the sense- 
history." — Murray. 

128. mope. Cf. The Tempest, V, i, 240. — fat-brain'd : stupid. Cf. 
1 fat-witted' in / Henry IV, I, ii, 2. 

130. apprehension : mental quickness, perception. Cf. A Midsum- 
mer Night* s Dream, III, ii, 178. But probably the constable uses 
the word in the double sense of ' intelligence ' and ' fear.' 

141. Just, just : exactly, so. — sympathize with : resemble. 



96 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act hi 

Orleans. Ay, but these English are shrewdly out of beef. 

Constable. Then shall we find to-morrow they have only 
stomachs to eat, and none to fight. Now is it time to arm ; 
come, shall we about it? 149 

Orleans. It is now two o'clock : but, let me see, — by ten 
We shall have each a hundred Englishmen. \Exeunt\ 

146. shrewdly F2 | shrowdly Fi. 150. o'clock Theobald | a Clock Ff. 

147-148. Here, as in The Merchant of Venice, III, v, 93, 'stomach' 
is used in both the literal sense, 'appetite for food,' and the figurative, 
'inclination.' Cf. IV, iii, 35. 

150. by ten. " Betwene nine and ten of the clocke." — Holinshed. 



ACT IV 

PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus 

Chorus. Now entertain conjecture of a time 
When creeping murmur and the poring dark 
Fills the wide vessel of the universe. 
From camp to camp, through the foul womb of night, 
The hum of either army stilly sounds, 5 

That the fix'd sentinels almost receive 
The secret whispers of each other's watch : 
Fire answers fire \ and through their paly flames 
Each battle sees the other's umber'd face : 
Steed threatens steed, in high and boastful neighs 10 

ACT IV. PROLOGUE | Actus 6. fix'd sentinels Johnson | fixt 

Tertius Ff | Act III Scene i Rowe. Centinels Ff. 

1. entertain conjecture of: picture vividly to yourselves. 

2. poring. " Straining its eyes and yet seeing only the nearest 
things." — Schmidt. This is an example of transferred epithet. Cf. 
" the weary and all-watched night," line 38. 

6. That: so that. — fix'd: stationed, remaining at their posts. 

9. battle: army (cf. 'battalion'). Cf. IV, ii, 54; Julius Ccesar, V, 
i, 4, 16, etc. — umber'd. It has been suggested that the faces of the 
soldiers would appear of an 'umber' color when beheld through the 
light of midnight fires. Perhaps nothing more is meant than 'brown 
in shadow.' Cf. As You Like It, I, iii, 114. The epithet ' paly flames ' 
is against the other interpretation. 

97 



98 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Piercing the night's dull ear ; and from the tents, 

The armourers, accomplishing the knights, 

With busy hammers closing rivets up, 

Give dreadful note of preparation : 

The country cocks do crow, the clocks do toll, 15 

And the third hour of drowsy morning name. 

Proud of their numbers, and secure in soul, 

The confident and over-lusty French 

Do the low-rated English play at dice ; 

And chide the cripple tardy-gaited night, 20 

Who, like a foul and ugly witch, doth limp 

So tediously away. The poor condemned English, 

Like sacrifices, by their watchful fires 

Sit patiently and inly ruminate 

The morning's danger ; and their gesture sad 25 

Investing lank-lean cheeks, and war-worn coats, 



16. morning name. Steevens(Tyr- 20. cripple tardy-gaited Capell | 

whitt conj.) I Morning nam'd, Ff. creeple-tardy-gated Ff. 

13. As Douce has made clear, this does not solely refer to the 
riveting the plate armor before it was put on, but also to a part 
when it was on. The top of the cuirass had a little projecting bit of 
iron that passed through a hole in the bottom of the casque. When 
both were put on, the armorer presented himself, with his riveting 
hammer, ' to close the rivet up.' 

18-19. " For the capteins had determined before how to diuide 
the spoile, and the soldiers the night before had plaid the English- 
men at dice." — Holinshed. 

25-26. gesture sad Investing. The metaphor of a gesture ' invest- 
ing ' cheeks seems rather harsh and strained. But ' gesture,' in the 
sense of the Latin original, may very well be used of a look, or any 
form of expression addressed to the eye. And to speak of a ' look ' 
as ' overspreading ' or ' covering ' the face, is legitimate enough. We 
have a like figure in Much Ado About Nothing, IV, i, 146, "I am so 



prologue KING HENRY THE FIFTH 99 

Presented them unto the gazing moon 

So many horrid ghosts. O, now, who will behold 

The royal captain of this ruin'd band 

Walking from watch to watch, from tent to tent, 30 

Let him cry ' Praise and glory on his head ! ' 

For forth he goes and visits all his host, 

Bids them good morrow with a modest smile, 

And calls them brothers, friends, and countrymen. 

Upon his royal face there is no note 35 

How dread an army hath enrounded him ; 

Nor doth he dedicate one jot of colour 

Unto the weary and all-watched night, 

But freshly looks and over-bears attaint 

With cheerful semblance and sweet majesty ; 40 

That every wretch, pining and pale before, 

Beholding him, plucks comfort from his looks : 

A largess universal like the sun 

His liberal eye doth give to every one, 

Thawing cold fear, that mean and gentle all 45 

Behold, as may unworthiness define, 

A little touch of Harry in the night. 

45. fear, that Ff Globe Delius | 46. Behold Ff | Unfold Moberly 

fear. Then Theobald. conj. — define, Globe | define. Ff. 

attired in wonder"; also, in Sidney's Astrophel, "Anger invests the 
face with a lovely grace." The comma after ' cheeks,' as in the Folio, 
indicates that ' and ' connects ' coats ' with ' gesture.' 

39. over-bears attaint : overcomes the stain of weariness. 

45-47. that mean and . . . Theobald's emendation has been widely 
adopted, but the text of the Folios is intelligible, meaning probably, 
So that all ranks in the English army behold, as far as their unworthy 
natures admit (or, as I hope our poor actors may be able to repre- 
sent), a something of Harry, etc. 



IOO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

And so our scene must to the battle fly ; 

Where — O for pity ! — we shall much disgrace 

With four or five most vile and ragged foils, 50 

Right ill-dispos'd in brawl ridiculous, 

The name of Agincourt. Yet sit and see, 

Minding true things by what their mockeries be. \_Exif\ 

Scene I. The English camp at Agincourt 

Enter King Henry, Bedford, and Gloucester 

King Henry. Gloucester, 'tis true that we are in great 
danger ; 
The greater therefore should our courage be. 
Good morrow, brother Bedford. God Almighty ! 
There is some soul of goodness in things evil, 
Would men observingly distil it out ; 5 

For our bad neighbour makes us early stirrers, 
Which is both healthful and good husbandry : 
Besides, they are our outward consciences, 
And preachers to us all ; admonishing 
That we should dress us fairly for our end. 10 

Thus may we gather honey from the weed, 
And make a moral of the devil himself. 

ScENElHanmer | Scene II Pope. Enter King Henry . . . | Enter 

— The English . . . Agincourt Theo- the King . . . Ff . 
bald I Ff omit. 1. Gloucester | Gloster Ff. 

50-51. Cf. Ben Jonson's Every Man in His Humour, Prologue : 
or, with three rusty swords . . . 
Fight over Yorke and Lancasters long jarres. 

53. Minding: calling to mind. — ■ mockeries: poor representations. 
10. dress us : prepare ourselves. From Fr. dresser, l to direct.' 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH IOI 

Enter Erpingham 

Good morrow, old Sir Thomas Erpingham : 
A good soft pillow for that good white head 
Were better than a churlish turf of France. 15 

Erpingham. Not so, my liege : this lodging likes me better, 
Since I may say ' Now lie I like a king. ' 

King Henry. ? T is good for men to love their present 
pains 
Upon example ; so the spirit is eas'd : 

And, when the mind is quicken'd, out of doubt 20 

The organs, though defunct and dead before, 
Break up their drowsy grave, and newly move 
With casted slough and fresh legerity. 
Lend me thy cloak, Sir Thomas. Brothers both, 
Commend me to the princes in our camp ; 25 

Do my good morrow to them ; and anon 
Desire them all to my pavilion. 

Gloucester. We shall, my liege. 

Erpingham. Shall I attend your grace? 

King Henry. No, my good knight ; 

Go with my brothers to my lords of England : 30 

18. pains I paines Fi I paine F2 I 23. legerity | legeritie F1F2 I ce- 

pain F3F4. lerity F3F4. 

13. Sir Thomas Erpingham "is called in the Agincourt Roll 
1 stuard of the Kinges house.' He was a great benefactor of the city 
of Norwich, where he built the well-known Erpingham gateway." — 
Wright. "A man of great experience in the warre." — Holinshed. 

23. The allusion is to the casting of the 'slough' or skin of the 
snake annually, by which act the reptile is supposed to regain new 
vigor and fresh youth. Cf. Twelfth Night, II, v, 161. — legerity: 
nimbleness, alacrity (Fr. legereti). Cf. ' legerdemain.' 



102 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

I and my bosom must debate awhile, 
And then I would no other company. 

Erpingham. The Lord in heaven bless thee, noble Harry ! 

[Exeunt all but King Henry] 
King Henry. God-a-mercy, old heart ! thou speak'st 
cheerfully. 

Enter Pistol 

Pistol. Qui va la? 35 

King Henry. A friend. 

Pistol. Discuss unto me ; art thou officer? 
Or art thou base, common, and popular? 

King Henry. I am a gentleman of a company. 

Pistol. Trail'st thou the puissant pike? 40 

King Henry. Even so. What are you? 

Pistol. As good a gentleman as the emperor. 

King Henry. Then you are a better than the king. 

Pistol. The king 's a bawcock, and a heart of gold, 
A lad of life, an imp of fame ; 45 

Of parents good, of fist most valiant. 
I kiss his dirty shoe, and from heart-string 

1 love the lovely bully. What is thy name? 

King Henry. Harry le Roi. 

Pistol. Le Roy ! 50 

A Cornish name : art thou of Cornish crew? 

33. [Exeunt . . . | Exeunt Ff. vous la Ff. 

35. Scene III Pope | Scene II 37-38, 44-48. Prose in Ff. 

Hanmer. — Qui va la Rowe | Che 43. a better F1F2F3 | better F4. 

38. popular : plebeian. The ordinary meaning in Shakespeare. 
45. imp : scion, shoot of a tree. Cf. " royal imp of fame " in 

2 Henry IV, V, v, 45. In Richard II, II, i, 292, < imp ' is used as a 
verb in the sense of 'graft,' i.e. 'supply with fresh feathers.' 



sceni l KING HENRY THE FIFTH 



103 



King Henry. No, I am a Welshman. 

Pistol. Know 'st thou Fluellen ? 

King Henry. Yes. 

Pistol. Tell him, I '11 knock his leek about his pate 55 
Upon Saint Davy's day. 

King Henry. Do not you wear your dagger in your cap 
that day, lest he knock that about yours. 

Pistol. Art thou his friend? 

King Henry. And his kinsman too. 60 

Pistol. The figo for thee, then ! 

King Henry. I thank you : God be with you ! 

Pistol. My name is Pistol call'd. \_Exif\ 

King Henry. It sorts well with your fierceness. 

Enter Fluellen and Gower 

Gower. Captain Fluellen ! 65 

Fluellen. So ! in the name of Jesu Christ, speak lower. 
It is the greatest admiration in the universal world, when 
the true and auncient prerogatifes and laws of the wars is 
not kept : if you would take the pains but to examine the 
wars of Pompey the Great, you shall find, I warrant you, 

55-56. Prose in Ff. 66. So | 'So Ff. — lower Q3 Malone 

64. Manet King Ff. | fewer Ff | lewer Q1Q2. 

52. Cf. IV, vii, 11, 99. Henry calls himself a Welshman because 
he was born at Monmouth in Wales. Hence his surname, Harry of 
Monmouth. 

55-56. The leek is the national emblem of Wales, and Welshmen 
wear the leek on March 1, the day of St. David, the patron saint of 
Wales. According to tradition, the Welsh at command of St. David 
wore leeks in their caps when they won their great victory over the 
Saxons on March 1, in the year 540. 

67. greatest admiration : most wonderful thing. 



104 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

that there is no tiddle taddle nor pibble pabble in Pompey's 
camp ; I warrant you, you shall find the ceremonies of the 
wars, and the cares of it, and the forms of it, and the so- 
briety of it, and the modesty of it, to be otherwise. 74 

Gower. Why, the enemy is loud ; you hear him all night. 

Fluellen. If the enemy is an ass, and a fool, and a 
prating coxcomb, is it meet, think you, that we should also, 
look you, be an ass, and a fool, and a prating coxcomb, in 
your own conscience, now? 

Gower. I will speak lower. 80 

Fluellen. I pray you and beseech you that you will. 

[Exeunt Gower and Fluellen] 

King Henry. Though it appear a little out of fashion, 
There is much care and valour in this Welshman. 

Enter three soldiers, John Bates, Alexander Court, 
and Michael Williams 

Court. Brother John Bates, is not that the morning 
which breaks yonder ! 85 

Bates. I think it be : but we have no great cause to 
desire the approach of day. 

Williams. We see yonder the beginning of the day, but 
I think we shall never see the end of it. Who goes there? 

King Henry. A friend. 90 

Williams. Under what captain serve you? 

King Henry. Under Sir Thomas Erpingham. 

Williams. A good old commander and a most kind 
gentleman : I pray you, what thinks he of our estate? 

71. pabble Theobald | bable F1F2 84. Scene IV Pope | Scene III 

I babble F3F4. Hanmer. 

81. [Exeunt . . . Capell | Exit Ff. 92. Thomas Pope | John Ff. 



scene I KING HENRY THE FIFTH 105 

King Henry. Even as men wreck'd upon a sand, that 
look to be wash'd off the next tide. 96 

Bates. He hath not told his thought to the king? 

King Henry. No ; nor it is not meet he should. For, 
though I speak it to you, I think the king is but a man, 
as I am : the violet smells to him as it doth to me ; the 
element shows to him as it doth to me ; all his senses have 
but human conditions : his ceremonies laid by, in his naked- 
ness he appears but a man ; and though his affections are 
higher mounted than ours, yet, when they stoop, they stoop 
with the like wing. Therefore, when he sees reason of fears, 
as we do, his fears, out of doubt, be of the same relish as 
ours are : yet, in reason, no man should possess him with 
any appearance of fear, lest he, by showing it, should dis- 
hearten his army. 109 

Bates. He may show what outward courage he will ; but 
I believe, as cold a night as 't is, he could wish himself in 
Thames up to the neck : and so I would he were, and I by 
him, at all adventures, so we were quit here. 

King Henry. By my troth, I will speak my conscience 
of the king : I think he would not wish himself any where 
but where he is. 116 

95. wreck'd | wrackt F1F2F3. 

101. element: sky. Cf. 2 Henry IV, IV, iii, 58; Twelfth Night, 
III, i, 65. 

102. ceremonies : badges of orifice. Cf . Julius Ccesar, I, i, 70 ; 
Measure for Measure, II, ii, 59. An adumbration of Carlyle's picture 
of a naked House of Lords, ' Adamitism,' Sartor Resartus. 

104. Another metaphor taken from falconry. Cf. Ill, vii, 106-107. 
The word ' stoop ' was used technically of the hawk swooping on 
her prey. Cf. The Taming of the Shrew, IV, i, 194. 

107. possess him with : communicate to him. Cf. line 278. 



106 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Bates. Then I would he were here alone ; so should he 
be sure to be ransom'd, and a many poor men's lives sav'd. 

King Henry. I dare say you love him not so ill, to wish 
him here alone, howsoever you speak this, to feel other 
men's minds : methinks I could not die any where so con- 
tented as in the king's company; his cause being just, and 
his quarrel honourable. 123 

Williams. That 's more than we know. 

Bates. Ay, or more than we should seek after ; for we 
know enough, if we know we are the king's subjects : if his 
cause be wrong, our obedience to the king wipes the crime 
of it out of us. 128 

Williams. But, if the cause be not good, the king him- 
self hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs 
and arms and heads, chopp'd off in a battle, shall join to- 
gether at the latter day, and cry all, ' We died at such a 
place ' ; some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some 
upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the 
debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left. I am 
afeard there are few die well that die in a battle; for how 
can they charitably dispose of any thing, when blood is 
their argument? Now, if these men do not die well, it will 
be a black matter for the king that led them to it ; who to 
disobey were against all proportion of subjection. 140 

131. in a Fi I in F2F3F4. 139. who Fi | whom F2F3F4. 

135. rawly : hurriedly, without due provision being made for them. 

137. 'Charitably dispose ' alludes to the old doctrine that a Chris- 
tian's last hours should be spent in making such provision as he can 
for the poor and needy and suffering human brethren whom he is 
leaving behind. 'Argument' in Shakespeare is often used to signify 
any matter in thought or business in hand. 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 107 

King Henry. So, if a son that is by his father sent about 
merchandise do sinfully miscarry upon the sea, the impu- 
tation of his wickedness, by your rule, should be impos'd 
upon his father that sent him : or, if a servant, under his 
master's command transporting a sum of money, be assail'd 
by robbers, and die in many irreconcil'd iniquities, you may 
call the business of the master the author of the servant's 
damnation. But this is not so : the king is not bound to 
answer the particular endings of his soldiers, the father of 
his son, nor the master of his servant; for they purpose 
not their death, when they purpose their services. Besides, 
there is no king, be his cause never so spotless, if it come 
to the arbitrement of swords, can try it out with all un- 
spotted soldiers : some peradventure have on them the 
guilt of premeditated and contriv'd murder ; some, of be- 
guiling virgins with the broken seals of perjury ; some, 
making the wars their bulwark, that have before gor'd the 
gentle bosom of peace with pillage and robbery. Now, if 
these men have defeated the law and outrun native punish- 
ment, though they can outstrip men, they have no wings to 
fly from God : war is His beadle, war is His vengeance ; so 
that here men are punish'd for before-breach of the king's 
laws in now the king's quarrel : where they fear'd the 
death, they have borne life away ; and where they would 

162. before-breach Capell | before breach Ff. 

142. sinfully miscarry : perish impenitent in his sins. 

146. The language is elliptical, but the reference is plainly to sins 
for which peace has not been made with heaven by repentance and 
restitution. 

156. broken seals of perjury: vows broken by perjury. 

159-160. native punishment : punishment in their own country. 



108 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

be safe, they perish : then, if they die unprovided, no more 
is the king guilty of their damnation than he was before 
guilty of those impieties for the which they are now visited. 
Every subject's duty is the king's; but every subject's soul 
is his own. Therefore should every soldier in the wars do 
as every sick man in his bed, wash every mote out of his 
conscience : and, dying so, death is to him advantage ; or, 
not dying, the time was blessedly lost wherein such prepa- 
ration was gain'd : and, in him that escapes, it were not sin 
to think that, making God so free an offer, He let them 
outlive that day to see His greatness, and to teach others 
how they should prepare. 176 

Williams. 'Tis certain, every man that dies ill, the ill 
upon his own head ; the king is not to answer it. 

Bates. I do not desire he should answer for me ; and 
yet I determine to fight lustily for him. 180 

King Henry. I myself heard the king say he would not 
be ransom'd. 

Williams. Ay, he said so, to make us fight cheerfully : 
but, when our throats are cut, he may be ransom'd, and we 
ne'er the wiser. 185 

King Henry. If I live to see it, I will never trust his 
word after. 

Williams. You pay him then ! That 's a perilous shot 

170. mote Malone I Moth Ff. 188. You Ff | 'Mass, you'll Qq. 

165. unprovided : unprepared (i.e. spiritually unprovided for). 

170. Though the First Folio consistently spells ' mote ' ' moth,' 
the two words are quite distinct in etymology, and in Elizabethan 
English were pronounced much as they are to-day. 

188. pay: punish. Still used colloquially in this sense. Here 
there may lurk a punning reference to ' trust ' in the preceding line. 



scene I KING HENRY THE FIFTH 109 

out of an elder-gun, that a poor and a private displeasure 
can do against a monarch ! you may as well go about to 
turn the sun to ice with fanning in his face with a peacock's 
feather. You '11 never trust his word after ! come, 't is a 
foolish saying. 193 

King Henry. Your reproof is something too round : I 
should be angry with you, if the time were convenient. 195 

Williams. Let it be a quarrel between us, if you live. 

King Henry. I embrace it. 

Williams. How shall I know thee again? 

King Henry. Give me any gage of thine, and I will wear 
it in my bonnet : then, if ever thou dar'st acknowledge it, 
I will make it my quarrel. 201 

Williams. Here 's my glove : give me another of thine. 

King Henry. There. 

Williams. This will I also wear in my cap : if ever thou 
come to me and say, after to-morrow, ' This is my glove,' 
by this hand, I will take thee a box on the ear. 206 

King Henry. If ever I live to see it, I will challenge it. 

Williams. Thou dar'st as well be hang'd. 

King Henry. Well, I will do it, though I take thee in 
the king's company. 210 

Williams. Keep thy word : fare thee well. 

206. take F1F2 I give F3F4. 

189. elder-gun : pop-gun. Pop-guns were often made by punching 
the pith out of a piece of elder. 

194. round : plain-spoken, unceremonious. Cf. Twelfth Night, II, 
iii, 102 : " Sir Toby, I must be round with you." 

206. ' Take ' is etymologically cognate with ' touch.' See Skeat. 
Hence probably the special meaning of ' take ' here (i.e. ' strike ' ; 
cf. the common "Touch me, if you dare!"); in IV, vii, 19; in 
Twelfth Night, II, v, 75, and elsewhere in Shakespeare. 



IIO THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Bates. Be friends, you English fools, be friends : we have 
French quarrels enow, if you could tell how to reckon. 

King Henry. Indeed, the French may lay twenty French 
crowns to one, they will beat us; for they bear them on 
their shoulders : but it is no English treason to cut French 
crowns ; and to-morrow the king himself will be a clipper. 

[Exeunt Soldiers] 
Upon the king ! let us our lives, our souls, 
Our debts, our careful wives, 

Our children, and our sins lay on the king ! 220 

We must bear all. O hard condition, 
Twin-born with greatness, subject to the breath 
Of every fool whose sense no more can feel 
But his own wringing ! What infinite heart's-ease 
Must kings neglect that private men enjoy ! 225 

And what have kings that privates have not too, 
Save ceremony, save general ceremony? 

217. [Exeunt Soldiers] Exit Soul- 221-225. As in Globe Camb | in 
diers Ff (after line 213). Ff lines end all, greatness, sense, 

218. Scene V Pope | Scene IV wringing, neglect, enjoy. 
Hanmer. 

214-217. In Richard II, III, iii, 95-97, is a similar quibble on 
1 crowns ' as meaning both ' coins ' and ' heads.' Here ' French 
crowns ' punningly involves the English name for the French coin 
called ecu (escu) and a slang Elizabethan term for baldness. Cf. A 
Midsummer AHght's Dream, I, ii, 99. ' Clipping' the edges of coins 
was a treasonable offence. 

218-272. " There is something very striking and solemn in this 
soliloquy into which the king breaks immediately ... he is left 
alone. Something like this . . . every breast has felt." — Johnson. 

219. careful : full of care, anxious. Cf. Richard II, II, ii, 75. Some 
take ' careful ' here as a transferred epithet, interpreting ' our careful 
wives' as 'the wives we are careful for.' 

224. But his own wringing : only his own suffering. 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH in 

And what art thou, thou idol ceremony? 

What kind of god art thou, that suffer'st more 

Of mortal griefs than do thy worshippers? 230 

What are thy rents? what are thy comings in? 

ceremony, show me but thy worth ! 
What is thy soul of adoration? 

Art thou aught else but place, degree, and form, 

Creating awe and fear in other men? 235 

Wherein thou art less happy being fear'd 

Than they in fearing. 

What drink' st thou oft, instead of homage sweet, 

But poison'd flattery? O, be sick, great greatness, 

And bid thy ceremony give thee cure ! 240 

Think' st thou the fiery fever will go out 

With titles blown from adulation? 

Will it give place to flexure and low bending? 

Canst thou, when thou command'st the beggar's knee, 

Command the health of it? No, thou proud dream, 245 

That play'st so subtly with a king's repose : 

1 am a king that find thee ; and I know 

'T is not the balm, the sceptre, and the ball, 
The sword, the mace, the crown imperial, 

233. What is . . . adoration ? | What ! is . . . Adoration ? Rowe. 
Knight I What ? is . . . Odoration ? 234. aught Theobald | ought Ff. 

Fi I What ? is . . . Adoration ? F2F3F4 241. Think 'st Rowe | Thinks Ff. 

233. What is the life, virtue, or essence, of the adoration paid to 
thee ? For this use of ' thy ' see Abbott, § 219. 

242. blown from adulation : blown up with the breath of flattery. 

248. balm: consecrated oil used in anointing a king at his coro- 
nation. Cf. j Henry VI, III, i, 17; Richard II, III, ii, 54-55. — 
ball : symbol of sovereignty carried by a king in his left hand. Cf. 
Macbeth, IV, i, 1 20-121. 



112 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

The intertissued robe of gold and pearl, 250 

The farced title running 'fore the king, 

The throne he sits on, nor the tide of pomp 

That beats upon the high shore of this world, — 

No, not all these, thrice-gorgeous ceremony, 

Not all these, laid in bed majestical, 255 

Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, 

Who, with a body fill'd and vacant mind, 

Gets him to rest, cramm'd with distressful bread ; 

Never sees horrid night, the child of hell; 

But, like a lackey, from the rise to set, 260 

Sweats in the eye of Phoebus and all night 

Sleeps in Elysium ; next day, after dawn, 

Doth rise and help Hyperion to his horse ; 

And follows so the ever-running year, 

With profitable labour, to his grave : 265 

And, but for ceremony, such a wretch, 

Winding up days with toil and nights with sleep, 

Had the fore -hand and vantage of a king. 

The slave, a member of the country's peace, 

Enjoys it; but in gross brain little wots 270 

What watch the king keeps to maintain the peace, 

Whose hours the peasant best advantages. 

% 

263. Hyperion | Hiperion F2 I Hiperio Fi. 

251. farced : stuffed out, rilled out with pompous phrases. The 
metaphor is from the kitchen and refers to the tumid, grandiloquent 
titles with which a king's name is introduced on occasions of state. 

258. distressful bread : bread earned by grievous toil. 

263. Rises before the sun-god has harnessed his team. 

272. advantages : benefits. The northern plural in s. The sub- 
ject of the verb is 'whose hours'; 'peasant' is the object. In the 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 113 

Enter Erpingham 

Erpingham. My lord, your nobles, jealous of your absence, 
Seek through your camp to find you. 

King Henry. Good old knight, 

Collect them all together at my tent : 275 

I '11 be before thee. 

Erpingham. I shall do 't, my lord. [Exit] 

King Henry. O God of battles ! steel my soldiers' hearts ; 
Possess them not with fear ; take from them now 
The sense of reckoning, if th' opposed numbers 
Pluck their hearts from them ! Not to-day, O Lord, 280 
O, not to-day, think not upon the .fault 
My father made in compassing the crown ! 
I Richard's body have interred new ; 
And on it have bestow'd more contrite tears 
Than from it issu'd forced drops of blood : 285 

Five hundred poor I have in yearly pay, 
Who twice a-day their wither'd hands hold up 
Toward heaven, to pardon blood \ and I have built 
Two chantries, where the sad and solemn priests 

273. Scene VI Pope | Scene V 279. reckoning, if Steevens (Tyr- 

Hanmer. — Enter . . . Ff | Re-enter whitt conj.) Globe Camb | reckning 

. . . Globe Camb. of Ff j reck'ning; lest Theobald. 

274-276. Good . . . thee | two lines 288-290. Four lines in Ff, ending 

in Ff ending together, thee. "blood, chantries, still, do. 

'Arden' Shakespeare, H. A. Evans makes 'peasant' the subject 
and quotes ' advantaging ' from Richard III, IV, iv, 323. 

279. Tyrwhitt's conjecture of 'if without a pause at the end of 
the line, instead of ' of ' with a colon there, as in the Folios, is now 
all but universally adopted. As Tyrwhitt said, it produces "a given 
effect with the least possible force." 

289. chantries : chapels " endowed for the maintenance of one or 
more priests to sing daily mass for the souls of the founders or others 



114 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Sing still for Richard's soul. More will I do ; 290 

Though all that I can do is nothing worth, 
Since that my penitence comes after all, 
Imploring pardon. 

Enter Gloucester 

Gloucester. My liege ! 

King Henry. My brother Gloucester's voice? Ay; 

I know thy errand, I will go with thee : 295 

The day, my friends, and all things stay for me. \Exeunf\ 

Scene II. The French camp 

Enter the Dauphin, Orleans, Rambures, and others 

Orleans. The sun doth gild our armour ; up, my lords ! 
Dauphin. Montez a cheval ! My horse! varlet! laquaisiha! 
Orleans. O brave spirit ! 

Scene II Capell | Scene VII 1. armour ; up, Globe Camb | 

Pope I Scene VI Hanmer. — The armour, up F2F3F4 I Armour vp Fi. 

French camp Theobald | Ff omit. — 2. Montez a Steevens (Capell 

Enter . . . and others Capell | Enter conj.) | Monte Ff. — varlet ! Dyce | 

. . . and Beaumont Ff. Verlot Fi | Valet F2F3F4. 

specified by them." — Murray. According to Malone, of the chan- 
tries referred to in the text, one was "for Carthusian monks, and 
was called Bethlehem ; the other was for religious men and women 
of the order of St. Bridget, and was named Sion. They were on 
opposite sides of the Thames, and adjoined the royal manor of 
Sheen, now called Richmond." 

292-293. Since, after all that I have done or can do in works of 
piety and charity, nothing but true penitence and earnest prayer for 
pardon will avail to procure a remission of my sins. 

2-6. " If any one should find a meaning in these ejaculations, he 
will probably discover more than Shakespeare intended, if indeed he 
wrote the lines at all. The actor who took the part of the Dauphin 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 115 

Dauphin. Via ! les eaux et la terre ! 

Orleans. Rien puis ? Pair et le feu ! 5 

Dauphin. Ciel ! cousin Orleans. 

Enter Constable 

Now, my lord constable ! 

Constable. Hark, how our steeds for present service 

neigh ! 
Dauphin. Mount them, and make incision in their hides, 
That their hot blood may spin in English eyes, 10 

And dout them with superfluous courage, ha ! 

Rambures. What, will you have them weep our horses' 
blood? 
How shall we, then, behold their natural tears? 

Enter Messenger 

Messenger. The English are embattled, you French peers. 

Constable. To horse, you gallant princes ! straight to 
horse ! 15 

Do but behold yond poor and starved band, 
And your fair show shall suck away their souls, 
Leaving them but the shales and husks of men. 
There is not work enough for all our hands ; 

4. les eaux Theobald | les ewes Ff. n. dout Rowe | doubt Ff | daunt 

6. Ciel Theobald | Cein F1F2 I Pope. 
Cien F3F4. 

probably had a smattering of French, and was supposed to represent 
the typical Frenchman." — Clar. 

11. dout: extinguish. From 'do out.' Cf. ' don ' from 'do on,' 
* dup ' from ' do up,' ' doff ' from ' do off.' 

18. shales: shells. 'Shale' and 'scale' are from the Anglo-Saxon 
scea/e, ' shell ' or ' scale.' 



Il6 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Scarce blood enough in all their sickly veins 20 

To give each naked curtle-axe a stain, 

That our French gallants shall to-day draw out, 

And sheathe for lack of sport : let us but blow on them, 

The vapour of our valour will o'erturn them. 

'Tis positive 'gainst all exceptions, lords, 25 

That our superfluous lackeys and our peasants, 

Who in unnecessary action .swarm 

About our squares of battle, were enow 

To purge this field of such a hilding foe ; 

Though we upon this mountain's basis by 30 

Took stand for idle speculation : 

But that our honours must not. What 's to say? 

A very little little let us do, 

And all is done. Then let the trumpet sound 

The tucket sonance and the note to mount. 35 

For our approach shall so much dare the field, 

That England shall couch down in fear, and yield. 

25. 'gainst F2F3F4 I against Fi. 35. sonance Johnson | Sonuance Ff. 

21. curtle-axe : cutlass, short sword. ' Curtle-axe ' is a popular 
perversion of the Fr. coutelas (Lat. cultellns, 'knife '). 

29. hilding: paltry, worthless. Cf. 'hilding fellow' in 2 Henry IV, 
I, i, 57. This word, of uncertain origin, is properly a noun, as in The 
Taming of the Shrew, II, i, 26. 

31. speculation : looking on. To be pronounced as five syllables. 

35. tucket sonance : sounding of the tucket. A ' tucket ' (probably 
from Ital. toccata) was a peculiar series of notes on a trumpet. The 
word is common in Elizabethan stage directions. The Constable's 
spirits are dancing in merry scorn. His expressions, as Johnson says, 
are fitter for a sporting-excursion than for a war-tussle. 

36. dare the field : daunt the adversary. ' Dare ' in this sense is 
etymologically distinct from ' dare ' meaning ' venture.' See Murray. 
" Birds are ' dared ' when by the falcon in the air they are terrified 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 117 

Entej" Grandpre 

Grandpre. Why do you stay so long, my lords of France ? 
Yond island carrions, desperate of their bones, 
Ill-favouredly become the morning field : 40 

Their ragged curtains poorly are let loose, 
And our air shakes them passing scornfully ; 
Big Mars seems bankrupt in their beggar 'd host, 
And faintly through a rusty beaver peeps : 
The horsemen sit like fixed candlesticks, 45 

With torch-staves in their hand; and their poor jades 
Lob down their heads, dropping the hides and hips, 
The gum down-roping from their pale-dead eyes ; 
And in their pale dull mouths the gimmal'd bit 
Lies foul with chew'd grass, still and motionless : 50 

47. dropping the hides Fi | droop- Johnson Globe Camb. 
ing the hide F2F3F4. 50. chew'd grass | chaw'd-grasse 

49. gimmal'd Evans (suggested Fi I chaw'd grasse F2 ! chaw'd grass 

by Murray) | Iymold Ff | gimmal F3F4. — still | stiff Vaughan con j. 

from rising, so that they will be sometimes taken by the hand. Such 
an easy capture the lords expected to make of the English." — 
Johnson. With this use of ' dare ' cf. Henry VIII, III, ii, 279-282. 

40. Ill-favouredly become : make an ugly show upon. 

41. ragged curtains. A contemptuous description of the banners. 

44. beaver: visor of a helmet. Properly the lower part of the 
helmet face-guard. Middle English baviere ; Old Fr. baviere, ' a 
child's bib.' 

45. Elizabethan candlesticks were often in the form of human 
figures holding the sockets for the lights in their extended hands. 

49. gimmal'd : made with gimmals (pronounced ji7?i'i?ials) " or 
joints; consisting of two similar parts hinged together." — Murray. 
Murray quotes from Edward III, I, ii, " Neuer shall . . . rust in 
canker, haue the time to . . . lay a side their Jacks of Gymould 
mayle," and gives sufficient grounds for restoring the reading of the 
Folios as is done by H. A. Evans. 



Il8 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

And their executors, the knavish crows, 

Fly o'er them, all impatient for their hour. 

Description cannot suit itself in words 

To demonstrate the life of such a battle 

In life so lifeless as it shows itself. 55 

Constable. They have said their prayers, and they stay 
for death. 

Dauphin. Shall we go send them dinners and fresh suits, 
And give their fasting horses provender, 
And after fight with them? 

Constable. I stay but for my guard ; on to the field ! 60 
I will the banner from a trumpet take, 
And use it for my haste. Come, come, away ! 
The sun is high, and we outwear the day. \_Exeunf\ 

55. lifeless Capell | liuelesse Fi 60. guard; on | Guard: on Ff J 

F2F3 I liveless F4. guidon : Rann Globe Camb. 

60. guard ; on. Malone takes ' guard ' as equivalent to ' body- 
guard,' — a simple and natural interpretation of the Folio reading. 
Many modern editors accept Rann's suggestion that ' guidon ' is the 
true reading here. But while 'guidon' was used in sixteenth century 
English in the sense of 'standard,' it was applied to the forked pennon 
carried by inferior officers and would be inappropriate to describe a 
standard borne by the commander of the French forces. In the follow- 
ing passage from Holinshed, which has been often quoted in support 
of Rann's reading, the ' seruants and men of warre ' may properly 
enough be regarded as a description of the 'my guard' of the Folios : 

They thought themselves so sure of victorie, that diuerse of the noble men 
made such hast towards the battell, that they left manie of their seruants and 
men of warre behind them, and some of them would not once staie for their 
standards ; as amongst other the duke of Brabant, when his standard was not 
come, caused a baner to be taken from a trumpet and fastened to a speare, 
the which he commanded to be borne before him in-steed of his standard. 

61. trumpet: trumpeter. Cf. IV, vii, 51 ; 3 Henry VI, V, i, 16. 
Some editors interpret it literally in the sense of 'banderole.' 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 119 

Scene III. The English camp 

Enter Gloucester, Bedford, Exeter, Erpingham, with all 
his host ; Salisbury ^/^/Westmoreland 

Gloucester. Where is the king? 

Bedford. The king himself is rode to view their battle. 

Westmoreland. Of fighting-men they have full three- 
score thousand. 

Exeter. There 's five to one ; besides, they all are fresh. 

Salisbury. God's arm strike with us ! 't is a fearful odds. 
God be wi' you, princes all ; I '11 to my charge : 6 

If we no more meet till we meet in heaven, 
Then, joyfully, my noble Lord of Bedford, 
My dear Lord Gloucester, and my good Lord Exeter, 
And my kind kinsman, warriors all, adieu ! 10 

Bedford. Farewell, good Salisbury; and good luck go 
with thee ! 

Exeter. Farewell, kind lord ; fight valiantly to-day : 
And yet I do thee wrong to mind thee of it, 
For thou art fram'd of the firm truth of valour. 

\_Exit Salisbury] 

Bedford. He is as full of valour. as of kindness; 15 

Princely in both. 

Scene III Capell | Scene VIII 13, 14. These lines follow line 11 

Pope I Scene VII Hanmer. — The in Ff, and were transposed by Theo- 

English camp Theobald | Ff omit. bald (Thirlby conj.). 

6. be wi' Rowe | buy' Ff. 14. fram'd Fi | fam'd F2F3F4. 

3. " Three-score thousand horsemen, besides footmen, wagoners 
and other." — Holinshed. 

4. " Six times as manie or more." — Holinshed. 

10. Westmoreland is the ' kind kinsman ' here addressed. 



120 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Enter the King 

Westmoreland. O, that we now had here 
But one ten thousand of those men in England 
That do no work to-day ! 

King Henry. What's he that wishes so? 

My cousin Westmoreland? No, my fair cousin : 
If we are mark'd to die, we are enow 20 

To do our country loss ; and if to live, 
The fewer men, the greater share of honour. 
God's will ! I pray thee, wish not one man more. 
By Jove, I am not covetous for gold ; 

Nor care I who doth feed upon my cost ; 25 

It yearns me not if men my garments wear ; 
Such outward things dwell not in my desires : 
But if it be a sin to covet honour, 
I am the most offending soul alive. 

No, faith, my coz, wish not a man from England : 30 

God's peace ! I would not lose so great an honour 
As one man more, methinks, would share from me, 
For the best hope I have. O, do not wish one more ! 
Rather proclaim it, Westmoreland, through my host, 
That he which hath no stomach to this fight, 35 

16-18. Holinshed does not give the speaker's name : 

It is said, that as he heard one of the host vtter his wish to another thus : 
" I would to God there were with vs now so manie good soldiers as are at this 
houre within England ! " the king answered : " I would not wish a man more 
here than I haue ; we are indeed in comparison to the enimies but a few, but 
if God of his clemencie doo favour vs, and our just cause (as I trust he will), 
we shall speed well inough. But let no man ascribe victorie to our owne 
strength and might, but onelie to Gods assistance." 

24. " He never desired monie to keepe, but to giue. ,, — Holinshed. 
26. yearns : grieves. See note, II, iii, 3. 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 121 

Let him depart ; his passport shall be made, 

And crowns for convoy put into his purse : 

We would not die in that man's company 

That fears his fellowship to die with us. 

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian : 40 

He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, 

Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, 

And rouse him at the name of Crispian. 

He that shall live this day, and see old age, 

Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours, 45 

And say, ' To-morrow is Saint Crispian ' : 

Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars, 

And say, ' These wounds I had on Crispin's day.' 

Old men forget ; yet all shall be forgot, 

But he '11 remember with advantages 50 

What feats he did that day : then shall our names, 

Familiar in his mouth as household words, 

Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter, 

44. shall live . . . and see Pope | Camb | Ff Delius omit. 

shall see . . . Hue Ff. 49. shall he Fi | shall not be 

45. neighbours Ff | friends Qq F2F3F4 Capell. 

Capell. 52. his mouth Ff | their mouths 

48. And . . . day Qq Malone Globe Qq Malone | their mouth Pope. 

38. die. Coleridge's suggestion that ' live ' should be read here 
was adopted in previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare. 

40. The battle of Agincourt was fought the 25th of October, 141 5. 
The saints and martyrs who gave name to the day were Crispinus and 
Crispianus, brothers, born at Rome, from whence they traveled to 
the town now called Soissons, in France, about the year 303, to 
propagate Christianity. That they might not be chargeable to others 
for their maintenance, they worked as shoemakers. Hence they have 
become the universally recognized patron saints of shoemakers. 

45. The 'vigil' of a holy day was the watch kept the night before. 

50. advantages : improvements and additions. A humorous touch. 



122 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, 

Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. 55 

This story shall the good man teach his son ; 

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by, 

From this day to the ending of the world, 

But we in it shall be remembered, 

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers ; 60 

For he to-day that sheds his blood with me 

Shall be my brother ; be he ne'er so vile, ■ 

This day shall gentle his condition : 

And gentlemen in England now a-bed 

Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here ; 65 

And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks 

That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. 

Re-enter Salisbury 

Salisbury. My sovereign lord, bestow yourself with speed : 
The French are bravely in their battles set, 
And will with all expedience charge on us. 70 

King Henry. All things are ready, if our minds be so. 

Westmoreland. Perish the man whose mind is back- 
ward now ! 

King Henry. Thou dost not wish more help from Eng- 
land, coz ? 

Westmoreland. God's will ! my liege, would you and I 
alone, 

63. gentle his condition : make him a gentleman. In 141 7 Henry V 
inhibited any person, but such as had a right by inheritance or grant, 
from bearing coats-of-arms, but he expressly excepted those who 
fought with him at the battle of Agincourt. 

70. expedience : speed, expedition. Cf. Richard ff, II, i, 287. 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 123 

Without more help, could fight this royal battle ! 75 

King Henry. Why, now thou hast unwish'd five thousand 
men ; 
Which likes me better than to wish us one. 
You know your places : God be with you all ! 

Tucket, Enter Mont joy 

Montjoy. Once more I come to know of thee, King Harry, 
If for thy ransom thou wilt now compound, 80 

Before thy most assured overthrow ; 
For certainly thou art so near the gulf, 
Thou needs must be englutted. Besides, in mercy, 
The constable desires thee thou wilt mind 
Thy followers of repentance ; that their souls 85 

May make a peaceful and a sweet retire 
From off these fields, where, wretches, their poor bodies 
Must lie and fester. 

King Henry. Who hath sent thee now? 

75. could . . . battle Ff | might 79. Scene IX Pope | Scene VIII 

fight this battle out Qq Capell. Hanmer. 

76-77. By wishing only thyself and me, thou hast wished five thou- 
sand men away. Shakespeare, characteristically inattentive to num- 
bers, puts ' five thousand,' but in the last scene the French are said 
to be full ' three-score thousand,' which Exeter declares to be ' five 
to one.' The numbers of the English vary with different historians. 

79-125. Holinshed's account is as follows : 

The French thus in their jolitie, sent a herald to king Henrie, to inquire 
what ransome he would offer. Wherevnto he answered, that within two or 
three houres he hoped it would so happen, that the Frenchmen should be 
glad to common ! rather with the Englishmen for their ransoms, than the 
English to take thought for their deliuerance, promising for his owne part, 
that his dead carcasse should rather be a prize to the Frenchmen, than his 
living bodie should paie anie ransome. 

1 commune, confer. 



124 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Montjoy. The Constable of France. 

King Henry. I pray thee, bear my former answer back : 
Bid them achieve me, and then sell my bones. 91 

Good God ! why should they mock poor fellows thus? 
The man that once did sell the lion's skin 
While the beast liv'd, was kilPd with hunting him. 
A many of our bodies shall no doubt 95 

Find native graves ; upon the which, I trust, 
Shall witness live in brass of this day's work : 
And those that leave their valiant bones in France, 
Dying like men, though buried in your dunghills, 
They shall be fam'd ; for there the sun shall greet them, 100 
And draw their honours reeking up to heaven ; 
Leaving their earthly parts to choke your clime, 
The smell whereof shall breed a plague in France. 
Mark then abounding valour in our English ; 
That, being dead, like to the bullet's grazing, 105 

Break out into a second course of mischief, 
Killing in relapse of mortality. 
Let me speak proudly : Tell the constable 
We are but warriors for the working-day ; 
Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd no 

With rainy marching in the painful field ; 
There 's not a piece of feather in our host, — 
Good argument, I hope, we will not fly, — 

95. A F1F2F3 I And Q3F4. — grazing Theobald I grasing F2F3F4 

104. abounding Ff | abundant Qq. | erasing Fi | glancing Hudson conj. 

105. bullet's Hanmer | bullets Ff. 106. Break Ff | Breaks Qq Capell. 

97. Alluding to the plates of brass frequently let into tombstones. 

107. relapse of mortality : the returning of the mortal body to its 
original dust. The accent on the first syllable, the proper noun 
accent, helps to bring out this meaning. See Abbott, § 492. 



scene in KING HENRY THE FIFTH 125 

And time hath worn us into slovenry : 

But by the mass our hearts are in the trim; 115 

And my poor soldiers tell me, yet ere night 

They '11 be in fresher robes ; or they will pluck 

The gay new coats o'er the French soldiers' heads, 

And turn them out of service. If they do this, — 

As, if God please, they shall, — my ransom then 120 

Will soon be levied. Herald, save thou thy labour ; 

Come thou no more for ransom, gentle herald : 

They shall have none, I swear, but these my joints 

Which if they have as I will leave 'em them, 

Shall yield them little, tell the constable. 125 

Montjoy. I shall, King Harry. And so fare thee well : 
Thou never shalt hear herald any more. \_Exif\ 

King Henry. I fear thou wilt once more come again for 
ransom. 

Enter York 

York. My lord, most humbly on my knee I beg 
The leading of the vaward. 130 

King Henry. Take it, brave York. Now, soldiers, march 
away : 
And how thou pleasest God, dispose the day ! \_Exeunt] 

121. Two lines in Ff. 128. ransom | a Ransome Ff. 

124. 'emRowe | vm F1F2F3 I 'urn F4. 131. Two lines in Ff. 

114. slovenry : slovenliness. Nowhere else in Shakespeare. 

129. Edward, Duke of York, was the son of Edmund of Langley, the 
youngest son of Edward III. He figures as Aumerle in Richard II. 
York was killed at Agincourt, and his title passed to his nephew. 

130. vaward : vanguard. A spelling of ' vanward.' " He appointed 
a vaw T ard, of the which he made capteine Edward duke of York who 
of a haultie 1 courage had desired that office." — Holinshed. 

1 haughty (loft)', elevated). 



126 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Scene IV. The field of battle 

Alarum. Excursions. Enter Pistol, French Soldier, 
and Boy 

Pistol. Yield, cur ! 

French Soldier. Je pense que vous etes gentilhomme 
de bonne quality. 

Pistol. Qualtitie calmie custure me ! Art thou a gentle- 
man? what is thy name? jiiscuss. 5 

French Soldier. O Seigneur Dieu ! % 

Pistol. O, Signieur Dew should be a gentleman : 
Perpend my words, O Signieur Dew, and mark ; 

Signieur Dew, thou diest on point of fox, 

Except, O signieur, thou do give to me 10 

Egregious ransom. 

French Soldier. O prenez misericorde ! ayez pitie de moi ! 

Pistol. Moy shall not serve ; I will have forty moys ; 
Or I will fetch thy rim out at thy throat 
In drops of crimson blood. 15 

Scene IV Capell | Scene X Pope 13-15. Prose in Ff. 

1 Scene IX Hanmer. — The field of 14. Or Hanmer (Theobald conj.) 
battle I Ff omit. I For Ff . — rim Capell | rym F4 | 

7- n. As prose in Ff. rymme F1F2F3. 

Excursions. This word (an obsolete military term meaning *a 
sally against an enemy ') of the Folio stage direction probably stands 
for such ' business ' as single encounters between soldiers. 

4. Qualtitie calmie custure me. Pistol's ' patter ' here has been in- 
geniously interpreted as a popular Elizabethan Irish song-refrain, 

9. fox : sword. This fancy term "was given from the circumstance 
that Andrea Ferrara, and, since his time, other foreign sword-cutlers, 
adopted a fox as the blade-mark of their weapons." — Staunton. 

13. Moy : a measure of grain. Cf. Lat. modins, ' bushel.' 

14. rim : midriff, diaphragm. Used here in a general sense. 



scene iv KING HENRY THE FIFTH 127 

French Soldier. Est-il impossible d'echapper la force 
de ton bras? 

Pistol. Brass, cur ! 
Thou damned and luxurious mountain-goat, 
Offer'st me brass? 20 

French Soldier. O, pardonnez-moi ! 

Pistol. Say'st thou me so? is that a ton of moys? 
Come hither, boy : ask me this slave in French 
What is his name. 

Boy. Ecoutez : comment etes-vous appele? 25 

French Soldier. Monsieur le Fer. 

Boy. He says his name is Master Fer. 

Pistol. Master Fer ! I'll fer him, and firk him, and 
ferret him : discuss the same in French unto him. 29 

Boy. I do not know the French for fer, and ferret, and firk. 

Pistol. Bid him prepare ; for I will cut his throat. 

French Soldier. Que dit-il, monsieur? 

Boy. II me commande a vous dire que vous faites vous 
pret ; car ce soldat ici est dispose tout a cette heure de 
couper votre gorge. . 35 

Pistol. Owy, cuppele gorge, permafoy, 
Peasant, unless thou give me crowns, brave crowns; 
Or mangled shalt thou be by this my sword. 38 

French Soldier. O, je vous supplie, pour l'amour de 

18-20. Prose in Ff. vous teniez F2F3F4. 
22-24. Prose in Ff. 34. a cette heure Theobald | as- 

27, 28. Master Capell Globe De- ture Ff. 
lius I M. F1F2F3 I Mr. F4. 35. couper I couppes Fi. 

33. faites vous | faite vous Fi | 36-38. Prose in Ff. 

28-29. firk . . . and ferret : beat and worry. Probably a proverbial 
expression. Cf. Dekker's use of the words in Northward Ho: 
"weele ferret them and firk them, in-faith." 



128 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Dieu, me pardonner ! Je suis gentilhomme de bonne mai- 
son ; gardez ma vie, et je vous donnerai deux cents £cus. 

Pistol. What are his words ? 

Boy. He prays you to save his life : he is a gentleman 
of a good house ; and for his ransom he will give you two 
hundred crowns. . 45 

Pistol. Tell him my fury shall abate, and I 
The crowns will take. 

French Soldier. Petit monsieur, que dit-il? 

Boy. Encore qu'il est contre son jurement de pardonner 
aucun prisonnier, neanmoins, pour les ecus que vous l'avez 
promis, il est content de vous donner la liberte, le franchise- 
ment. 52 

French Soldier. Sur mes genoux je vous donne mille 
remercimens ; et je m'estime heureux que je suis tombe 
entre les mains d'un chevalier, je pense, le plus brave, vail- 
lant, et tres-distingue seigneur d'Angleterre. 56 

Pistol. Expound unto me, boy. 

Boy. He gives you, upon his knees, a thousand thanks ; 
and he esteems himself happy that he hath fallen into the 
hands of one, as he thinks, the most brave, valorous, and 
thrice-worthy signieur of England. 

Pistol. As I suck blood, I will some mercy show. 
Follow me ! 63 

Boy. Suivez-vous le grand capitaine. [Exeunt Pistol, 
and French Soldier] I did never know so full a voice 
issue from so empty a heart : but the saying is true, ' The 

40. suis F2F3F4 I suis le Fi. — 53. je | se Fi. — donne F2F3F4 I 
bonne | bon Fi. donnes Fi. 

41. gardez Theobald I garde F1F2. 54. remercimens | remercions Fi. 
46-47. Prose in Ff. — suis tombe | intombe Fi. 

50-51. l'avez promis | layt a pro- 64. Suivez Rowe I Saaue Fi. — 

mets Fi I luy promettez F2. {Exeunt . . . Pope | Ff omit. 



scene v KING HENRY THE FIFTH 129 

empty vessel makes the greatest sound.' Bardolph and Nym 
had ten times more valour than this roaring devil i' the old 
play, that every one may pare his nails with a wooden 
dagger ; and they are both hang'd ; and so would this be, 
if he durst steal any thing adventurously. I must stay with 
the lackeys, with the luggage of our camp : the French 
might have a good prey of us, if he knew of it \ for there 
is none to guard it but boys. \_Exii\ 

Scene V. Another part of the field 

Enter the Constable, Orleans, Bourbon, Dauphin, 
and Rambures 

Constable. O diable ! 

Orleans. O Seigneur ! le jour est perdu, tout est perdu ! 

Dauphin. Mort de ma vie ! all is confounded, all ! 

Scene V Capell | Scene XI Pope 2. est perdu . . . est perdu Rowe 

I Scene X Hanmer. — Another part | et perdia . . . et perdie Fi. 
. . . Theobald | Ff omit. 3. de Rowe | Dieu Ff | du Qq. 

68. The Devil was a prominent personage in the old miracle plays 
and moral plays. He was as turbulent, boisterous, and vainglorious 
as Pistol. * Ho, ho ! ' and ' Ah, ha ! ' were among his stereotyped ex- 
clamations or ' roarings.' The Vice used to belabor him with vari- 
ous indignities, and, among them, threaten to pare his nails with the 
1 dagger of lath,' the Devil choosing to keep his claws long and sharp. 
Cf. Twelfth Night, IV, ii, 136. 

1-3. Coleridge comments thus on the opening of this scene : 

Ludicrous as these introductory scraps of French appear, so instantly fol- 
lowed by good, nervous mother-English, yet they are judicious, and produce 
the impression Shakespeare intended : a sudden feeling struck at once on the 
ears, as well as the eyes, of the audience, that ' here come the French, the baf- 
fled French braggards ! ' And this will appear the more judicious, when we 
reflect on the scanty apparatus of distinguishing dresses in Shakespeare's 
tiring-room. 



130 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Reproach and everlasting shame 

Sits mocking in our plumes. O mechante fortune ! 5 

Do not run away. [_A short alarum~\ 

Constable. Why, all our ranks are broke. 

Dauphin. O perdurable shame ! let 's stab ourselves. 
Be these the wretches that we play'd at dice for? 

Orleans. Is this the king we sent to for his ransom? 9 

Bourbon. Shame, and eternal shame, nothing but shame ! 
Let us die in honour : once more back again. 

Constable. Disorder, that hath spoil'd us, friend us now ! 
Let us on heaps go offer up our lives. 

Orleans. We are enow, yet living in the field, 
To smother up the English in our throngs, 15 

If any order might be thought upon. 

Bourbon. The devil take order now ! I'll to the throng : 
Let life be short ; else shame will be too long. [_Exeunt] 

Scene VI. Another part of the field 
Alarum. Enter King Henry and his train, with prisoners 

King Henry. Well have we done, thrice-valiant country- 
men : 
But all 's not done ; yet keep the French the field. 

Exeter. The Duke of York commends him to your 
majesty. 

King Henry. Lives he, good uncle? thrice within this 
hour 

11. Let us die in honour : once instant : — once Theobald. 
Globe Camb | Let's die in honour: 18. [Exeunt] Rowe | Exit Ff. 

once Knight | Let's dye with honour Scene VI Capell | Scene XIJ 

Qq I Let us dye in once Fi I Let us Pope 1 Scene XI Hanmer. 
flye in once F2F3F4 I Let us dye, 



scene vi KING HENRY Tlffi FIFTH 131 

I saw him down; thrice up again, and fighting; 5 

From helmet to the spur all blood he was. 

Exeter. In which array, brave soldier, doth he lie, 
Larding the plain ; and by his bloody side, 
Yoke-fellow to his honour-owing wounds, 
The noble Earl of Siiffolk also lies. 10 

Suffolk first died : and York, all haggled over, 
Comes to him, where in gore he lay insteep'd, 
And takes him by the beard ; kisses the gashes 
That bloodily did yawn upon his face ; 
He cries aloud, * Tarry, my cousin Suffolk ! 15 

My soul shall thine keep company to heaven ; 
Tarry, sweet soul, for mine, then fly a-breast ; 
As in this glorious and well-foughten field 
We kept together in our chivalry ! ' 

Upon these words, I came and cheer'd him up : 20 

He smiPd me in the face, raught me his hand, 
And, with a feeble gripe, says, ' Dear my lord, 
Commend my service to my sovereign.' 
So did he turn, and over Suffolk's neck 
He threw his wounded arm, and kiss'd his lips ; 25 

And so, espous'd to death, with blood he seal'd 
A testament of noble-ending love. 
The pretty and sweet manner of it forc'd 
Those waters from me which I would have stopp'd : 

15. He Ff Delius I And Qq Pope Globe Delius Camb. 
Globe Camb. — myFf | dearQq Pope 21. raught F1F2 | caught F3F4. 

8. Larding: enriching with his blood. Cf. 1 Henry IV, II, ii, 116. 
n. haggled: hacked, mangled. "A weakened form of 'hackle,' 
frequentative of ' hack.' " — Skeat. 

21. raught : reached. The old past tense of ' reach.' 



132 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

But I had not so much of man in me, 30 

And all my mother came into mine eyes, 
And gave me up to tears. 

King Henry. I blame you not ; 

For, hearing this, I must perforce compound 
With mistful eyes, or they will issue too. \_Alarum\ 

But, hark ! what new alarum is this same? 35 

The French have reinforc'd their scatter'd men : 
Then every soldier kill his prisoners ; 
Give the word through. [Exeunt] 

Scene VII. Another part of the field 

Enter Fluellen and Gower 

Fluellen. Kill the poys and the luggage ! 't is expressly 
against the law of arms : 't is as arrant a piece of knavery, 
mark you now, as can be offer't ; in your conscience, now, 
is it not? 4 

Gower. 'T is certain there 's not a boy left alive ; and 

31. And all Ff | But all Qq Pope. Pope | Scene XII Hanmer | Actus 

34. mistful Theobald | mixtfulFf. Quartus Ff | Act IV. Scene I Rowe. 
38. {Exeunt] Rowe | Exit F1F2. 1. Kill Ff | Godes plud kil Qq. 

Scene VII Capell | Scene XIII 3. offer't; in | offert in Ff. 

31. all my mother : all that is womanly in me. Cf. Hamlet, IV, 
vii, 190 ; Twelfth Night, II, i, 42-43. 

37. This incident is related in full by Holinshed. It appears after- 
wards that the king, on finding that the danger was not so great as 
he at first thought, stopped the slaughter, and was able to save a 
great number. It is observable that the king gives as his reason for 
the order, that he expected another battle, and had not men enough 
to guard one army and fight another. Gower (vii, 5-9) assigns a dif- 
ferent reason. Holinshed gives both reasons, and Shakespeare chose 
to put one in the king's mouth, the other in Gower's. 



scene vii 'KING HENRY THE FIFTH 133 

the cowardly rascals that ran from the battle ha' done this 
slaughter : besides, they have burn'd and carried away all 
that was in the king's tent ■ wherefore the king, most wor- 
thily, hath caus'd every soldier to cut his prisoner's throat. 
O, 'tis a gallant king ! 10 

Fluellen. Ay, he was porn at Monmouth, Captain 
Gower. What call you the town's name where Alexander 
the Pig was born? 

Gower. Alexander the Great. 14 

Fluellen. Why, I pray you, is not pig great? the pig, or 
the great, or the mighty, or the huge, or the magnanimous, 
are all one reckonings, save the phrase is a little variations. 

Gower. I think Alexander the Great was born in Mace- 
don : his father was called Philip of Macedon, as I take it. 19 

Fluellen. I think it is in Macedon where Alexander is 
porn. I tell you, captain, if you look in the maps of the 
'orld, I warrant you sail find, in the comparisons between 
Macedon and Monmouth, that the situations, look you, is 
both alike. There is a river in Macedon ; and there is also 
moreover a river at Monmouth : it is called Wye at Mon- 
mouth \ but it is out of my prains what is the name of the 
other river : but 't is all one ; 't is alike as my fingers is to 
my fingers, and there is salmons in both. If you mark 
Alexander's life well, Harry of Monmouth's life is come 
after it indifferent well; for there is figures in all things. 
Alexander, God knows, and you know, in his rages, and his 
furies, and his wraths, and his cholers, and his moods, and 
his displeasures, and his indignations, and also being a little 
intoxicates in his prains, did, in his ales and his angers, 
look you, kill his best friend, Cleitus. 35 

16. great F2F3F4 I grear Fi. 35, 41. Cleitus | Clytus Ff. 



134 TH E NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Gower. Our king is not like him in that : he never kill'd 
any of his friends. 

Fluellen. It is not well done, mark you now, to take 
the tales out of my mouth, ere it is made and finish'd. I 
speak but in the figures and comparisons of it : As Alexander 
kill'd his friend Cleitus, being in his ales and his cups ; so 
also Harry Monmouth, being in his right wits and his good 
judgments, turn'd away the fat knight with the great-belly 
doublet ; he was full of jests, and gipes, and knaveries, and 
mocks ; I have forgot his name. 45 

Gower. Sir John Falstaff. 

Fluellen. That is he. I '11 tell you there is good men 
porn at Monmouth. 

Gower. Here comes his majesty. 

Alarum. Enter King Henry and forces ; Warwick, 
Gloucester, Exeter, with prisoners. Flourish 

King Henry. I was not angry since I came to France 50 
Until this instant. Take a trumpet, herald ; 
Ride thou unto the horsemen on yond hill : 
If they will fight with us, bid them come down, 
Or void the field ; they do offend our sight : 
If they '11 do neither, we will come to them, 55 

And make them skirr away, as swift as stones 
Enforced from the old Assyrian slings : 

43-44. great-belly doublet Clar 1 50. Scene XIV Pope | Scene XIII 

great belly-doublet Theobald | great Hanmer. — Enter . . . Exeter | En- 
belly doublet Ff. ter King Harry and Burbon Ff. 

56. skirr : scurry, hurry. Cf. "skirr the country," Macbetk,Y, iii, 35. 

57. Enforced : driven by force. Cf. the special meaning of 'enforce- 
ment ' in 2 Henry IV, I, i, 1 20. 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 135 

Besides, we '11 cut the throats of those we have ; 

And not a man of them that we shall take 

Shall taste our mercy. Go, and tell them so. 60 

Enter Mont joy 

Exeter. Here comes the herald of the French, my liege. 

Gloucester. His eyes are humbler than they us'd to be. 

King Henry. How now ! what means this, herald ? 
know'st thou not 
That I have fin'd these bones of mine for ransom? 
Com'st thou again for ransom? 

Montjoy. No, great king : 65 

I come to thee for charitable license 
That we may wander o'er this bloody field 
To book our dead, and then to bury them ; 
To sort our nobles from our common men ; 
For many of our princes — woe the while ! — 70 

Lie drown'd and soak'd in mercenary blood : 
So do our vulgar drench their peasant limbs 
In blood of princes ; and their wounded steeds 

68. book F3F4 I booke F1F2 | look 73. and their Malone | and with 

Collier. Ff | while there Pope | and the Capell. 

61-85. Holinshed thus describes the king's interview with Montjoy: 

In the morning Montioie king at armes and foure other French heralds 
came to the K. to know the number of prisoners, and to desire buriall for the 
dead. Before he made them answer (to vnderstand what they would saie) he 
demanded of them whie they made to him that request, considering that he 
knew not whether the victorie was his or theirs ? When Montioie by true and 
just confession had cleered that doubt to the high praise of the king, he desired 
of Montioie to vnderstand the name of the castell neere adioining ; when they 
had told him that it was called Agincourt, he said, " Then shall this conflict 
be called the battell of Agincourt." 

68. book: register. Cf. 2 Henry IV, IV, iii, 50; Sonnets, cxvn, 9. 



136 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Fret fetlock deep in gore, and with wild rage 

Yerk. out their armed heels at their dead masters, 75 

Killing them twice. O, give us leave, great king, 

To view the field in safety, and dispose 

Of their dead bodies ! 

King Henry. I tell thee truly, herald, 

I know not if the day be ours or no ; 

For yet a many of your horsemen peer 80 

And gallop o'er the field. 

Montjoy. The day is yours. 

King Henry. Praised be God, and not our strength, for it ! 
What is this castle call'd that stands hard by? 

Montjoy. They call it Agincourt. 

King Henry. Then .call we this the field of Agincourt, 85 
Fought on the day of Crispin Crispianus. 

Fluellen. Your grandfather of famous memory, an 't 
please your majesty, and your great-uncle Edward the Plack 
Prince of Wales, as I have read in the chronicles, fought 3 
most prave pattle here in France. 90 

King Henry. They did, Fluellen. 

Fluellen. Your majesty says very true : if your majesties 
is remember'd of it, the Welshmen did good service in a 
garden where leeks did grow, wearing leeks in their Mon- 
mouth caps ; which, your majesty know, to this hour is an 
honourable badge of the service ; and I do believe your maj- 
esty takes no scorn to wear the leek upon Saint Tavy's day. 

94-95. "The best caps were formerly made at Monmouth, where 
the Cappers chapel doth still remain. ... If at this day the 
phrase of ' wearing a Monmouth cap ' be taken in a bad acception, 
I hope the inhabitants of that town will . . . disprove the occa- 
sion." — Fuller. 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 137 

King Henry. I" wear it for a memorable honour \ 
For I am Welsh, you know, good countryman. 99 

Fluellen. All the water in Wye cannot wash your maj- 
esty's Welsh plood out of your pody, I can tell you that : 
God pless it, and preserve it, as long as it pleases his grace, 
and his majesty too ! 

King Henry. Thanks, good my countryman. 104 

Fluellen. By Jeshu, I am your majesty's countryman, 
I care not who know it ; I will confess it to all the 'orld : I 
need not to be asham'd of your majesty, prais'd be God, so 
long as your majesty is an honest man. 

King Henry. God keep me so ! 

Enter Williams 

Our heralds go with him : 
Bring me just notice of the numbers dead no 

On both our parts. Call yonder fellow hither. 

\_Points to Williams. Exeunt Heralds with Montjoy] 

Exeter. Soldier, you must come to the king. 

King Henry. Soldier, why wear'st thou that glove in 
thy cap? 114 

Williams. And 't please your majesty, 't is the gage of 
one that I should fight withal, if he be alive. 

King Henry. An Englishman? 117 

Williams. And 't please your majesty, a rascal that swag- 
ger'd with me last night; who if alive, and ever dare to 

104. countryman | Countrymen Fi. — Exeunt . . . Theobald | Ff omit. 
109. God F3F4 I Good F1F2. 112. Scene XV Pope | Scene XIV 

in. [Points to Williams Malone. Hanmer. 

115, 118, 126. And 't : if it. Modern editors usually spell ' an 't.' 
See Abbott, §101. Cf. 'and' in lines 150, 155. 



138 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box o' th' 
ear : or, if I can see my glove in his cap, which he swore, 
as he was a soldier, he would wear if alive, I will strike it 
out soundly. 123 

King Henry. What think you, Captain Fluellen ! is it fit 
this soldier keep his oath? 

Fluellen. He is a craven and a villain else, and ? t please 
your majesty, in my conscience. 

King Henry. It may be his enemy is a gentleman of 
great sort, quite from the answer of his degree. 129 

Fluellen. Though he be as good a gentleman as the 
devil is, as Lucifer and Beelzebub himself, it is necessary, 
look your grace, that he keep his vow and his oath : if he 
be perjur'd, see you now, his reputation is as arrant a villain 
and a Jack-sauce, as ever his black shoe trod upon God's 
ground and his earth, in my conscience, la. 135 

King Henry. Then keep thy vow, sirrah, when thou 
meet'st the fellow. 

Williams. So I will, my liege, as I live. 

King Henry. Who serv'st thou under? 

Williams. Under Captain Gower, my liege. 140 

Fluellen. Gower is a good captain, and is good knowl- 
edge and literatur'd in the wars. 

King Henry. Call him hither to me, soldier. 

Williams. I will, my liege. \Exif\ 

King Henry. Here, Fluellen ; wear thou this favour for 
me, and stick it in thy cap : when Alencon and myself were 
down together, I pluck'd this glove from his helm : if any 

128-129. of great sort: of high rank. Cf. IV, viii, 71. 
146-147. Henry was " almost felled by the duke of Alanson, yet 
with plaine strength he . . . felled the duke himselfe." — Holinshed. 



scene vii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 139 

man challenge this, he is a friend to Alencon, and an enemy 
to our person ; if thou encounter any such, apprehend him, 
and thou dost me love. 150 

Fluellen. Your grace doo's me as great honours as can 
be desir'd in the hearts of his subjects : I would fain see 
the man, that has but two legs, that shall find himself 
aggrief'd at this glove, that is all; but I would fain see it 
once, and please God of his grace that I might see. 155 

King Henry. Know'st thou Gower? 

Fluellen. He is my dear friend, and please you. 

King Henry. Pray thee, go seek him, and bring him to 
my tent. 

Fluellen. I will fetch him. \_Exif] 

King Henry. My Lord of Warwick, and my" brother 
Gloucester, 160 

Follow Fluellen closely at the heels : 
The glove which I have given him for a favour 
May haply purchase him a box o' th' ear ; 
It is the soldier's ; I by bargain should 
Wear it myself. Follow, good cousin Warwick : 165 

If that the fellow strike him, as I judge 
By his blunt bearing, he will keep his word, 
Some sudden mischief may arise of it ; 
For I do know Fluellen valiant, 

And, touch'd with choler, hot as gunpowder, 170 

And quickly will return an injury : 
Follow, and see there be no harm between them. 
Go you with me, uncle of Exeter. \Exeunf\ 

151. doo's F1F2 I do'sF 3 I doesF4. 163. o' th' | a' th' Ff. 

157. and Ff | an 't Delius Camb. 167. his F1F2 I this F3F4. 

163. i Purchase ' {Fr.pour, chasser) originally means ' get in hunting.' 



140 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Scene VIII. Before King Henry's J>avz/wn 

Enter Gower and Williams 
Williams. I warrant it is to knight you, captain. 

Enter Fluellen 

Fluellen. God's will and his pleasure, captain, I beseech 
you now, come apace to the king : there is more good toward 
you peradventure than is in your knowledge to dream of. 

Williams. Sir, know you this glove? 5 

Fluellen. Know the glove ! I know the glove is a glove. 

Williams. I know this ; and thus I challenge it. 

\_Strikes hinf\ 

Fluellen. 'Sblood, an arrant traitor as any is in the 
universal world, or in France, or in England ! 

Gower. How now, sir ! you villain ! 10 

Williams. Do you think I '11 be forsworn ? 

Fluellen. Stand away, Captain Gower ; I will give trea- 
son his payment into plows, I warrant you. 

Williams. I am no traitor. 14 

Fluellen. That 's a lie in thy throat. I charge you in 
his majesty's name, apprehend him : he's a friend of the 
Duke Alencon's. 

Enter Warwick and Gloucester 

Warwick. How now, how now ! what 's the matter? 18 

Fluellen. My Lord of Warwick, here is — prais'd be 

God for it ! — a most contagious treason come to light, 

Scene VIII Capell | Scene XVI 8. 'Sblood | Sblud F1F2. — any is 

Pope I Scene XV Hanmer. — Before | any es F1F2F3 I any's F4. 
. . .pavilion Theobald | Ff omit. 13. into | in two Heath conj. 



scene viii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 141 

look you, as you shall desire in a summer's day. Here is 
his majesty. 

Enter King Henry and Exeter 

King Henry. How now ! what's the matter? 23 

Fluellen. My liege, here is a villain and a traitor, that, 
look your grace, has struck the glove which your majesty is 
take out of the helmet of Alencon. 

Williams. My liege, this was my glove ; here is the 
fellow of it ; and he that I gave it to in change promis'd 
to wear it in his cap : I promis'd to strike him, if he did : 
I met this man with my glove in his cap, and I have been 
as good as my word. 31 

Fluellen. Your majesty hear now, saving your majesty's 
manhood, what an arrant, rascally, beggarly, lousy knave it 
is : I hope your majesty is pear me testimony, and witness, 
and will avouchment, that this is the glove of Alencon, that 
your majesty is give me, in your conscience, now. 36 

King Henry. Give me thy glove, soldier : look, here is 
the fellow of it. 

'Twas I, indeed, thou promised'st to strike; 
And thou hast given me most bitter terms. 40 

Fluellen. And please your majesty, let his neck answer 
for it, if there is any martial law in the world. 

King Henry. How canst thou make me satisfaction? 

27-36. Verity notes how fine a contrast between two types of 
national character is afforded by these two speeches. 

37. Here ■ thy glove ' evidently means the glove that Williams 
has in his cap. The king and Williams had exchanged gloves, so 
each has the other's glove in pledge. But the king has just given 
to Fluellen the glove he received from Williams; and he now takes 
from his pocket the mate to the one that Williams received from him. 



142 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Williams. All offences, my liege, come from the heart : 
never came any from mine that might offend your majesty. 

King Henry. It was ourself thou didst abuse. 46 

Williams. Your majesty came not like yourself: you 
appear'd to me but as a common man ; witness the night, 
your garments, your lowliness; and, what your highness 
suffer'd under that shape, I beseech you take it for your 
own fault, and not mine : for, had you been as I took you 
for, I made no offence ; therefore, I beseech your highness, 
pardon me. 53 

King Henry. Here, uncle Exeter, fill this glove with 
crowns, 
And give it to this fellow. Keep it, fellow ; 
And wear it for an honour in thy cap 
Till I do challenge it. Give him the crowns : 
And, captain, you must needs be friends with him. 58 

Fluellen. By this day and this light, the fellow has 
mettle enough in his belly. Hold, there is twelve pence for 
you ; and I pray you to serve God, and keep you out of 
prawls, and prabbles, and quarrels, and dissensions, and, I 
warrant you, it is the better for you. 

Williams. I will none of your money. 64 

Fluellen. It is with a good will; I can tell you, it will 
serve you to mend your shoes : come, wherefore should 
you be so pashful? your shoes is not so good : 't is a good 
silling, I warrant you, or I will change it. 

Enter an English Herald 
King Henry. Now, herald, are the dead numbered? 69 

69. Scene XVII Pope | Scene Malone | Enter Herauld Ff | Enter a 
XVI Hanmer. — Enter . . . Herald Herald, and others Capell. 



scene viii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 143 

Herald. Here is the number of the slaughter'd French. 

King Henry. What prisoners of good sort are taken, 
uncle ? 

Exeter. Charles Duke of Orleans, nephew to the king ; 
John Duke of Bourbon, and Lord Bouciqualt : 
Of other lords and barons, knights and squires, 
Full fifteen hundred, besides common men. 75 

King Henry. This note doth tell me of ten thousand 
French 
That in the field lie slain : of princes, in this number, 
And nobles bearing banners, there lie dead 
One hundred twenty-six : added to these, 
Of knights, esquires, and gallant gentlemen, 80 

71-102. Holinshed's account is again followed closely : 

It was no marvell though this battell was lamentable to the French nation, 
for in it were taken and slaine the flower of all the nobilitie of France. There 
were taken prisoners, Charles duke of Orleance, nephue to the French king, 
John duke of Burbon, the lord Bouciqualt one of the marshals of France (he 
after died in England) with a number of other lords, knights, and esquiers, 
at the least fifteene hundred, besides the common people. There were slaine 
in all of the French part to the number of ten thousand men, whereof were 
princes and noble men bearing baners one hundred twentie and six ; to these, 
of knights, esquiers, and gentlemen, so manie as made up the number of eight 
thousand and foure hundred (of the which five hundred were dubbed knights 
the night before the battell) so as of the meaner sort, not past sixteene hun- 
dred. Amongst those of the nobilitie that were slaine, these were the cheefest, 
Charles lord de la Breth high constable of France, Iaques of Chatilon lord of 
Dampier admerall of France, the Lord Rambures master of the crossebowes, 
sir Guischard Dolphin great master of France, Iohn duke of Alanson, An- 
thonie duke of Brabant brother to the duke of Burgognie, Edward duke of 
Bar, the earle of Nevers an other brother to the duke of Burgognie, with the 
erles of Marie, Vaudemont, Grandpree, Roussie, Fauconberge, Fois and 
Lestrake, beside a great number of lords and barons of name. Of English- 
men, there died at this battell, Edward duke of Yorke, the earle of Suffolke, 
sir Richard Kikelie, and Dauie Gamme esquier, and of all other not above 
fiue and twentie persons, as some doo report. 



144 THE NE W HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act iv 

Eight thousand and four hundred ; of the which, 

Five hundred were but yesterday dubb'd knights : 

So that, in these ten thousand they have lost, 

There are but sixteen hundred mercenaries ; 

The rest are princes, barons, lords, knights, squires, 85 

And gentlemen of blood and quality. 

The names of those their nobles that lie dead, 

Charles Delabreth, high constable of France ; 

Jaques of Chatillon, Admiral of France ; 

The master of the cross-bows, Lord Rambures ; 90 

Great Master of France, the brave Sir Guichard Dolphin ; 

John Duke of Alencon ; Antony Duke of Brabant, 

The brother to the Duke of Burgundy ; 

And Edward Duke of Bar : of lusty earls, 

Grandpre and Roussi, Fauconberg and Foix, 95 

Beaumont and Marie, Vaudemont and Lestrale. 

Here was a royal fellowship of death ! 

Where is the number of our English dead? 

[Herald presents another paper] 
Edward the Duke of York, the Earl of Suffolk, 
Sir Richard Ketly, Davy Gam, esquire; 100 

None else of name ; and of all other men 
But five and twenty. O God, thy arm was here ; 
And not to us, but to thy arm alone, 

98. [Herald . . . paper\ Capell | Ff omit. 

100. Davy Gam, esquire. A pleasing anecdote is told of this brave 
Welshman in Sir Walter Raleigh's History of the World. Having 
been sent out before the battle to reconnoitre the enemy, he reported, 
" May it please you, my liege, there are enough to be killed, enough 
to be taken prisoners, and enough to run away." It is said that 
among his other feats at Agincourt he saved the king's life. 



scene viii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 145 

Ascribe we all ! When, without stratagem, 

But in plain shock and even play of battle, 105 

Was ever known so great and little loss 

On one part and on th' other ? Take it, God, 

For it is only thine ! 

Exeter. 'T is wonderful ! 

King Henry. Come, go we in procession to the village ; 
And be it death proclaimed through our host no 

To boast of this, or take that praise from God 
Which is his only. 

Fluellen. Is it not lawful, and please your majesty, to 
tell how many is kill'd? 114 

King Henry. Yes, captain \ but with this acknowledge- 
ment, 
That God fought for us. 

Fluellen. Yes, my conscience, he did us great good. 

King Henry. Do we all holy rites : 
Let there be sung ' Non nobis ' and ' Te Deum.' 
The dead with charity enclos'd in clay, 120 

And then to Calais ; and to England then ; 
Where ne'er from France arriv'd more happy men. \_Exeitnt\ 

109. we F2F3F4 I me Fi. 121. And Ff | Weele Qq | We '11 

118. rites Pope | Rights Ff. Capell. — Calais Rowe | Callice Fi. 
120. enclos'd Ff | enterred Qq. 122. happy Ff | happier Qq Capell. 

119. This is Holinshed's graphic account : 

And so, about foure of the clocke in the after noone, the king, when he 
saw no apperance of enimies, caused the retreit to be blowen ; and gathering 
his army togither, gave thanks to almightie God for so happie a victorie, caus- 
ing his prelats and chapleins to sing this psalme, In exitu Israel de sEgyflto ; 
and commanded euerie man to kneele downe on the ground at this verse, Non 
nobis, Domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam. "Which doone, he caused 
Te Deum with certeine anthems to be soong, giuing laud and praise to God, 
without boasting of his owne force or anie humane power. 



ACT V 
PROLOGUE 

Enter Chorus 

Chorus. Vouchsafe to those that have not read the story, 
That I may prompt them : and, of such as have, 
I humbly pray them to admit th' excuse 
Of time, of numbers, and due course of things, 
Which cannot in their huge and proper life 5 

Be here presented. Now we bear the king 
Toward Calais : grant him there ; there seen, 
Heave him away upon your winged thoughts 
Athwart the sea. Behold, the English beach 
Pales in the flood with men, with wives, and boys, 10 

Whose shouts and claps out-voice the deep-mouth'd sea, 
Which, like a mighty whiffler 'fore the king, 

ACT V. PROLOGUE | Actus 2. of such Ff | to such Pope | for 

Quintus Ff | Act V. Scene I Rowe | such Capell. 
Theobald continues the scene. 10. with wives F2F3F4 1 wives Fi. 

6-7. " When the king of England had well refreshed himselfe, and 
his souldiers (that had taken the spoile of such as were slaine,) he, 
with his prisoners, in good order, returned to the towne of Calis. . . . 
The sixt daie of Nouember, he with all his prisoners tooke shipping, 
and the same daie landed at Douer." — Holinshed. 

10. Pales in : fences around, incloses as with palings. 

12. whiffler : one who walks or rides at the head of a procession 
to clear the way. Originally the word was applied to a piper or fifer 
(' one who blows in whiffs ') preceding an army. 

146 



prologue KING HENRY THE FIFTH 147 

Seems to prepare his way : so let him land, 

And solemnly see him set on to London : 

So swift a pace hath thought that even now 15 

You may imagine him upon Blackheath ; 

Where that his lords desire him to have borne 

His bruised helmet and his bended sword 

Before him through the city, he forbids it, 

Being free from vainness and self-glorious pride ; 20 

Giving full trophy, signal, and ostent, 

Quite from himself to God. But now behold, 

In the quick forge and working-house of thought, 

How London doth pour out her citizens ! 

The mayor and all his brethren, in best sort, 25 

Like to the senators of th' antique Rome, 

With the plebeians swarming at their heels, 

Go forth and fetch their conquering Caesar in : 

As, by a lower but loving likelihood, 

29. lower but Globe Camb | lower, but by Ff. 

14. solemnly : with ordered pomp and ceremony. 

17-19. Whereas his lords wish him to have his bruised helmet and 
his bent sword borne before him, he forbids it. " He would not suffer 
his helmet to be caried with him, whereby might haue appeared to 
the people the blowes and dints that were to be seene in the same ; 
neither would he suffer any ditties to be made and soong by minstrels 
of his glorious victorie, for that he would wholie haue the praise and 
thanks altogither giuen to God." — Holinshed. 

21. ostent : external show. The king " seemed little to regard 
such vaine pompe and shewes as were in triumphant sort deuised 
for his welcomming home." — Holinshed. 

25. " The maior of London, and the aldermen, apparelled in orient 
grain scarlet, and four hundred commoners clad in beautiful murrie, 
well mounted and trimlie horssed, with rich collars, & great chaines, 
met the king on Blackheath, reioising at his returne. 1 ' — Holinshed. 



148 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Were now the general of our gracious empress, 30 

As in good time he may, from Ireland coming, 

Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, 

How many would the peaceful city quit, 

To welcome him ! much more, and much more cause, 

Did they this Harry. Now in London place him ; 35 

As yet the lamentation of the French 

Invites the King of England's stay at home ; 

The emperor 's coming in behalf of France, 

To order peace between them ; and omit 

All the occurrences, whatever chanc'd, 40 

Till Harry's back-return again to France : 

There must we bring him ; and myself have play'd 

The interim, by remembering you 't is past. 

Then brook abridgement; and your eyes advance, 

After your thoughts, straight back again to France. \_Exif\ 

8. The emperor 's | The Emperour's Ff | The emperor Delius. 

30-32. The allusion is to the Earl of Essex, who in April, 1599, 
set out for Ireland, as governor, to put down the rebellion of 
Tyrone. His departure was an occasion of great enthusiasm, people 
of all ranks thronging around him and showering benedictions upon 
him. But these bright anticipations were sadly disappointed. The 
expedition failed utterly ; and the earl's return, in September fol- 
lowing, was unhonoured and unmarked. — broached: spitted. 

38. The emperor *s coming : the emperor is coming. Sigismund 
"came into England to the intent that he might make an attone- 
ment betweene king Henrie and the French king." — Holinshed. 
The Emperor Sigismund, who had married a cousin of Henry V, 
visited England in May, 141 6. 

His main object was to enlist Henry's aid in terminating the great schism 
in the Catholic Church ; the Council of Constance, which eventually ended 
the schism by electing Martin V Pope, sat from 1414 to 1418 under the pres- 
idency of Sigismund. When his mediation between England and France 
failed, Sigismund "made an alliance with Henry. — Verity. 



38. 



scene i KING HENRY THE FIFTH 149 

Scene I. France. The English camp 

Enter Fluellen and Gower 

Gower. Nay, that 's right ; but why wear you your leek 
to-day? Saint Davy's day is past. 

Fluellen. There is occasions and causes why and where- 
fore in all things. I will tell you, asse my friend, Captain 
Gower : The rascally, scald, beggarly, lousy, pragging knave, 
Pistol, which you and yourself and all the world know to be 
no petter than a fellow, look you now, of no merits, he is 
come to me, and prings me pread and salt yesterday, look 
you, and pid me eat my leek : it was in a place where I 
could not breed no contention with him ; but I will be so 
bold as to wear it in my cap till I see him once again, and 
then I will tell him a little piece of my desires. 12 

Enter Pistol 

Gower. Why, here he comes, swelling like a turkey-cock. 

Fluellen. 'Tis no matter for his swellings nor his 
turkey-cocks. God pless you, Auncient Pistol ! you scurvy, 
lousy knave, Got pless you ! 16 

Scene I Hanmer I Scene II Pope. 2. Davy's | Dauies Ff | David's 

— France . . . camp Globe Camb | Rowe. 
A Court of Guard Capell | Ff omit. 4. asse my Ff | asse a Rowe. 

Scene I. In previous editions of Hudson's Shakespeare, this 
scene was made the ninth and last of the fourth act. The suggestion 
came from Johnson, who held that the quarrel happened before 
the return of the army to England ; but, as Steevens makes clear, 
Fluellen says, line 8, that it was ' yesterday ' he was bade by Pistol 
to eat the leek, so that this quarrel is not immediately concerned 
with the outbreak in the sixth scene of the third act. 

5. scald : scabby, scurvy. An Elizabethan term of contempt. 



150 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Pistol. Ha! art thou bedlam? dost thou thirst, base 
Trojan, 
To have me fold up Parca's fatal web? 
Hence ! I am qualmish at the smell of leek. 19 

Fluellen. I peseech you heartily, scurvy, lousy knave, 
at my desires, and my requests, and my petitions, to eat, 
look you, this leek : because, look you, you do not love it, 
nor your affections, and your appetites, and your digestions, 
doo's not agree with it, I would desire you to eat it. 

Pistol. Not for Cadwallader and all his goats. 25 

Fluellen. There is one goat for you. \_Strikes Aim'] 
Will you be so good, scald knave, as eat it? 

Pistol. Base Trojan, thou shalt die. 

Fluellen. You say very true, scald knave ; when God's 
will is : I will desire you to live in the mean time, and eat 
your victuals : come, there is sauce for it. [Strikes hint] 
You calPd me yesterday mountain-squire ; but I will make 
you to-day a squire of low degree. I pray you, fall to : if 
you can mock a leek, you can eat a leek. 

Gower. Enough, captain : you have astonish'd him. 35 

Fluellen. I say, I will make him eat some part of my 
bek, or I will peat his pate four days. Bite, I pray you; it 
is good for your green wound and your ploody coxcomb. 

Pistol. Must I bite ? 39 

17-19. Prose in Ff. 26. [Strikes hini\ Ff. 

24. doo's F1F2F3 I does F4. 31. [Strikes him\ Ff omit. 

25. Cadwallader, the last of the British (Welsh) kings, defended 
Wales against the invading Saxons. — goats. Cf. 1 Henry IV, III, 1,39. 

32. In Cymbeline 'mountaineer' is a term of contempt. 

33. a squire of low degree. The quibble involved is the more 
effective because it involves the title of a popular old romance in 
verse beginning, " It was a squyre of lowe degre." 



scene I KING HENRY THE FIFTH 151 

Fluellen. Yes, certainly, and out of doubt, and out of 
question too, and ambiguities. 

Pistol. By this leek, I will most horribly revenge : 
I eat and eat, I swear — 

Fluellen. Eat, I pray you : will you have some more 
sauce to your leek? there is not enough leek to swear by. 45 

Pistol. Quiet thy cudgel ; thou dost see I eat. 

Fluellen. Much good do you, scald knave, heartily. 
Nay, pray you, throw none away ; the skin is good for your 
broken coxcomb. When you take occasions to see leeks 
hereafter, I pray you, mock at 'em ; that is all. 50 

Pistol. Good. 

Fluellen. Ay, leeks is good : hold you, there is a groat 
to heal your pate. 

Pistol. Me a groat ! 54 

Fluellen. Yes, verily and in truth, you shall take it ; or 
I have another leek in my pocket, which you shall eat. 

Pistol. I take thy groat in earnest of revenge. 

Fluellen. If I owe you any thing, I will pay you in 
cudgels : you shall be a woodmonger, and buy nothing of 
me but cudgels. God b' wi' you, and keep you, and heal 
your pate. \_Exit] 

Pistol. All hell shall stir for this. 62 

Gower. Go, go; you are a counterfeit cowardly knave. 
Will you mock at an ancient tradition, begun upon an 
honourable respect, and worn as a memorable trophy of 
predeceas'd valour, — and dare not avouch in your deeds 

44. Eat, I I eate I Ff | eke I Rann. F1F2 I Gud bu'y F3F4. 

60. God V wi' Capell | God bu'y 64. begun Capell | began Ff. 

43. Moore Smith punctuates: "I, eat and eat? I swear — ." 
65. respect: consideration, reason. Cf. Hamlet, III, 1, 68. 



152 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

any of your words? I have seen you gleeking and galling 
at this gentleman twice or thrice. You thought, because he 
could not speak English in the native garb, he could not 
therefore handle an English cudgel : you find it otherwise ; 
and henceforth let a Welsh correction teach you a good 
English condition. Fare ye well. \_Exif\ 

Pistol. Doth Fortune play the huswife with me now? 
News have I that my Doll is dead i' the spital ; 
And there my rendezvous is quite cut off. 75 

Old I do wax ; and from my weary limbs 
Honour is cudgell'd. 

To England will I steal, and there I '11 steal : 
And patches will I get unto these cudgell'd scars, 79 

And swear I got them in the Gallia wars. \_Exif\ 

73-78. Prose in Ff. 79. cudgell'd | Qq Pope omit. 

74. Doll Ff I Nell Capell. 80. swear F3F4 I swore F1F2. 

67. gleeking : jeering. Cf . A Midsummer Night's Dream, III, i, 1 50, 
where Bottom says to Titania, " Nay, I can gleek upon occasion." — 
galling : saying galling things. Cf. I, ii, 151. 

69. garb : fashion. In the five places where Shakespeare uses 
' garb,' it is in the sense of a prevailing ' mode ' or custom, ' the 
fashion.' 

72. condition: temper, disposition. Cf. V, ii, 275. 

73. huswife: jilt. ' Hussy ' in this sense is still in common use. 

74. spital : hospital. See note on II, i, 69. 

80. \Exif\ Johnson comments thus characteristically : 

The comick scenes of The History of Henry the Fourth and Fifth are 
now at an end, and all the comick personages are now dismissed. Falstaff 
and Mrs. Quickly are dead ; Nym and Bardolph are hanged ; Gadshill was 
lost immediately after the robbery ; Poins and Peto have vanished since, one 
knows not how; and Pistol is now beaten into obscurity. I believe every 
reader regrets their departure. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 153 



Scene II. France. A royal palace 

Enter, at one door, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, 
Gloucester, Warwick, Westmoreland, and other 
Lords; at another, the French King, Queen Isabel, the 
Princess Katharine, Alice, and other Ladies ; the 
Duke of Burgundy, and his train 

King Henry. Peace to this meeting, wherefore we are 
met 1 
Unto our brother France, and to our sister, 
Health and fair time of day ; joy and good wishes 
To our most fair and princely cousin Katharine ; 
And, as a branch and member of this royalty, 5 

By whom this great assembly is contriv'd, 
We do salute you, Duke of Burgundy ; 
And, princes French, and peers, health to you all ! 

French King. Right joyous are we to behold your face, 
Most worthy brother England ; fairly met : 10 

So are you, princes English, every one. 

Queen Isabel. So happy be the issue, brother England, 
Of this good day and of this gracious meeting, 
As we are now glad to behold your eyes ; 

Scene II Hanmer | Scene III doore, King Henry, Exeter, Bedford, 

Pope. — France . . . palace Globe Warwicke, and other Lords. At 

Camb I Troyes in Champagne. An another, Queene Isabel, the King, 

Apartment in the French King's the Duke of Bourgongne, and other 

Palace Malone | Ff omit. French Ff. 

Enter . . . train | Enter at one 12. England F2F3F4 I Ireland Fi. 

1. The French and the English kings have met for discussion of 
the terms of peace, and King Henry begins by wishing peace to the 
meeting: " Peace, for which we are met, be to this meeting ! " 



154 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Your eyes, which hitherto have borne in them 15 

Against the French, that met them in their bent, 

The fatal balls of murdering basilisks : 

The venom of such looks, we fairly hope, 

Have lost their quality ; and that this day 

Shall change all griefs and quarrels into love. 20 

King Henry. To cry amen to that, thus we appear. 

Queen Isabel. You English princes all, I do salute you. 

Burgundy. My duty to you both, on equal love, 
Great kings of France and England ! That I have labour'd, 
With all my wits, my pains, and strong endeavours, 25 

To bring your most imperial majesties 
Unto this bar and royal interview, 
Your mightiness on both parts best can witness. 
Since then my office hath so far prevail'd 
That, face to face and royal eye to eye, 30 

You have congreeted, let it not disgrace me, 
If I demand, before this royal view, 

16. bent: direction of an eye-glance. Cf. 'bend,' Julius Ccesar, 
I, ii, 123. 

17. There is a quibble here. The name * basilisk ' was given to 
(1) a fabulous serpent, whose very glance was fatal, Richard III, I, 
ii, 151, and (2) a large cannon, 1 Henry IV, II, iii, 56. 

19. Have lost. The verb is attracted into the plural by the nearer 
substantive. See Abbott, § 412. 

27. bar : place of conference. Ordinarily, when sovereigns met in 
the field for purposes of conference, a barrier was erected at the 
place agreed upon, as a protection of either party against the pos- 
sible violence or treachery of the other. Hence ' bar ' came to be 
used for any place of meeting. 

28. mightiness. The word is plural. For the omission of es, see 
Abbott, § 471. Cf. 'highness' in I, ii, 36. 

31. congreeted : met and saluted. A Shakespearian ' nonce-word.' 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 155 

What rub or what impediment there is, 

Why that the naked, poor, and mangled Peace, 

Dear nurse of arts, plenties, and joyful births, 35 

Should not, in this best garden of the world, 

Our fertile France, put up her lovely visage? 

Alas, she hath from France too long been chas'd ! 

And all her husbandry doth lie on heaps, 

Corrupting in it own fertility. 40 

Her vine, the merry cheerer of the heart, 

Unpruned dies ; her hedges even-pleach'd, 

Like prisoners wildly overgrown with hair, 

Put forth disorder'd twigs ; her fallow leas 

The darnel, hemlock, and rank fumitory, 45 

Do root upon, while that the coulter rusts 

That should deracinate such savagery ; 

The even mead, that erst brought sweetly forth 

The freckled cowslip, burnet, and green clover, 

Wanting the scythe, all uncorrected, rank, 50 

Conceives by idleness, and nothing teems 

40. it F1F2 [ it's F3F4. 45. fumitory F4 1 FemetaryFiF2F3. 

42. even-pleach'd Hanmer 1 even 46. coulter Johnson | Culter Ff. 

pleach'd F1F2 I even, pleach'd F3F4. 50. all Rowe | withall Ff. 

40. it : its. This use of ' it ' as a possessive still survives in dialect. 
'It own' was very common. Cf. The Tempest, II, i, 163. 

42. even-pleach'd: evenly interwoven. Cf. Much Ado About Noth- 
ing, III, i, 7 : "And bid her steal into the pleached bower." 

45. Cf. the description of the weeds with which Lear in his mad- 
ness crowned himself, King Lear, IV, iv, 3-6. 

47. deracinate : pluck up by the roots, eradicate. Cf Troilus and 
Cressida, I, iii, 99. — savagery : wild growth. 

49. freckled cowslip. Cf. A Midsummer Night \r Dream, II, i, 10-13. 
— burnet. An herb used in stanching wounds. So called from the hue 
of its flowers, ' burnet ' being an old adjective meaning * dark brown.' 



156 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

But hateful docks, rough thistles, kecksies, burs, 

Losing both beauty and utility ; 

And all our vineyards, fallows, meads, and hedges, 

Defective in their natures, grow to wildness. 55 

Even so our houses and ourselves and children 

Have lost, or do not learn for want of time, 

The sciences that should become our country ; 

But grow, like savages, — as soldiers will 

That nothing do but meditate on blood, — 60 

To swearing and stern looks, defus'd attire, 

And every thing that seems unnatural. 

Which to reduce into our former favour, 

You are assembled : and my speech entreats 

That I may know the let, why gentle Peace 65 

Should not expel these inconveniences, 

And bless us with her former qualities. 

King Henry. If, Duke of Burgundy, you would the peace, 
Whose want gives growth to th' imperfections 

54-55. all . . . wildness. Ff | as. . . 61. defus'd F1F2 I diffus'd F3F4. 

wildness, Capell Globe Camb. 68. Burgundy Rowe | Burgonie Fi. 

52. kecksies: hemlocks. The word is often applied to the dry 
hollow stalks of various coarse umbelliferous plants. The spelling 
in the text is the provincial form of 'kexes,' which seems itself to be 
a double plural from 'keck.' See Skeat. 

54-55. There seems no good reason for rejecting the reading of 
the Folios here. — Defective in their natures. Not defective in their 
productive virtue, for they grew to wildness ; but defective in their 
proper virtue, which is to serve man with food and support. 

61. defus'd : disordered, confused. Cf. ' defuse,' King Lear, I,iv, 2. 

63. reduce : bring back. Lat. re-ducere. — favour : appearance. 
Cf. Measure for Measure, IV, ii, 34. 

65. let: hindrance. Cf. 'let,' the verb, in Hamlet, I, iv, 85. So 
" sore let and hindered " in the Book of Common Prayer. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 157 

Which you have cited, you must buy that peace 70 

With full accord to all our just demands ; 

Whose tenours and particular effects 

You have, enschedul'd briefly, in your hands. 

Burgundy. The king hath heard them; to the which as yet 
There is no answer made. 

King Henry. Well, then, the peace, 75 

Which you before so urg'd, lies in his answer. 

French King. I have but with a cursorary eye 
O'erglanc'd the articles : pleaseth your grace 
To appoint some of your council presently 
To sit with us once more, with better heed 80 

To re-survey them, we will suddenly 
Pass our accept and peremptory answer. 

King Henry. Brother, we shall. Go, uncle Exeter, 
And brother Clarence, and you, brother Gloucester, 
Warwick, and Huntingdon, go with the king ; 85 

72. tenoursTheobald I Tenures Ff. Q1Q2 I cursory Hanmer. 

75-76. Well . . . urg'd | one line 82. Pass our accept Ff | Pass, or 

in Ff. accept Theobald. 

77. cursorary Q3 Pope | curselarie 85. Huntingdon | Huntington Ff. 

Fi I curselary F2F3F4 I cursenary 

77. cursorary : cursory, hasty. The word ' cursory,' printed by 
Hanmer in the text, was just coming into use in Shakespeare's 
day ; " some latitude, therefore, especially under stress of metrical 
needs, is excusable, and the manifest perplexity of the printers of 
the Folio and Quartos easily intelligible." — H. A. Evans. 

79. presently : immediately. Like ' anon ' and other words mean- 
ing 'without delay,' 'presently' came to mean 'after a while.' 

82. Pronounce our accepted and decisive answer. Schmidt and 
others interpret ' accept ' as a shortened form of ' acceptance ' ; it is 
more likely to be a participle, as Murray, Clar, etc., suggest. 

85. Huntingdon. John Holland, Earl of Huntingdon, who after- 
wards married the widow of Edmund Mortimer, Earl of March. 



158 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

And take with you free power to ratify, 

Augment, or alter, as your wisdoms best 

Shall see advantageable for our dignity, 

Any thing in or out of our demands; 

And we '11 consign thereto. Will you, fair sister, 90 

Go with the princes, or stay here with us? 

Queen Isabel. Our gracious brother, I will go with them : 
Haply a woman's voice may do some good, 
When articles too nicely urg'd be stood on. 94 

King Henry. Yet leave our cousin Katharine here with us : 
She is our capital demand, compris'd 
Within the fore-rank of our articles. 

Queen Isabel. She hath good leave. 

[Exeunt all except Henry, Katharine, and Alice] 

King Henry. Fair Katharine, and most fair ! 

Will you vouchsafe to teach a soldier terms 
Such as will enter at a lady's ear, 100 

And plead his love-suit to her gentle heart? 

Katharine. Your majesty shall mock at me ; I cannot 
speak your England. 

King Henry. O fair Katharine, if you will love me 
soundly with your French heart, I will be glad to hear you 

93. Haply F4 I Happily Fi | Hap- Camb | Exeunt omnes. Manet King 
pely F2F3. and Katherine Ff. — Scene IV Pope 

98. {Exeunt all . . . Alice] Globe | Scene III Hanmer. 

Neither Huntingdon nor Clarence (line 84) is in the list of dramatis 
personam, as neither of them speaks a word. 

88. advantageable : advantageous. This confusion of active and 
passive forms, both in adjectives and participles, is common in 
Shakespeare. See Abbott, §§ 3, 374. 

94. nicely : fastidiously, captiously. Cf. ' nice,' line 258. — stood : 
insisted. Cf. j Henry VI, IV, vii, 58. 



scene n KING HENRY THE FIFTH 159 

confess it brokenly with your English tongue. Do you like 
me, Kate? 107 

Katharine. Pardonnez-moi, I cannot tell wat is 'like me.' 

King Henry. An angel is like you, Kate, and you are like 
an angel. no 

Katharine. Que dit-il ? que je suis semblable a les anges ? 

Alice; Oui, vraiment, sauf votre grace, ainsi dit-il. 

King Henry. I said so, dear Katharine; and I must not 
blush to affirm it. 114 

Katharine. O bon Dieu ! les langues des hommes sont 
pleines de tromperies. 

King Henry. What says she, fair one? that the tongues 
of men are full of deceit? 

Alice. Oui, dat de tongues of de mans is be full of de- 
ceits : dat is de princess. 120 

King Henry. The princess is the better Englishwoman. 
I' faith, Kate, my wooing is fit for thy understanding : I am 
glad thou canst speak no better English; for, if thou couldst, 
thou wouldst find me such a plain king, that thou wouldst 
think I had sold my farm to buy my crown. I know no ways 
to mince it in love, but directly to say, 'I love you'; then, 
if you urge me farther than to say, ' Do you in faith?' I 
wear out my suit. Give me your answer ; i' faith, do, and 
so clap hands and a bargain ; how say you, lady? 

Katharine. Sauf votre honneur, me understand well. 130 

108. wat Ff I vat Rowe Globe 120. is de | says de Mason conj. 

Camb. — 'like me' Globe | like me Ff. 129. so F1F2 I F3F4 omit. 

116. pleines Pope | plein Ff. 130. well Ff | veil Rowe Globe. 

120. dat is de princess. Probably this means, This is what the 
princess really feels. But see Mason's conjecture in textual notes. 
126. mince it. See Abbott, § 226. — directly: straightforwardly. 



160 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

King Henry. Marry, if you would put me to verses or to 
dance for your sake, Kate, why, you undid me : for the one, 
I have neither words nor measure ; and for the other, I have 
no strength in measure, yet a reasonable measure in strength. 
If I could win a lady at leap-frog, or by vaulting into my 
saddle with my armour on my back, under the correction 
of bragging be it spoken, I should quickly leap into a wife. 
Or, if I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her 
favours, I could lay on like a butcher, and sit like a jack- 
an-apes, never off. But, before God, Kate, I cannot look 
greenly nor gasp out my eloquence, nor I have no cunning 
in protestation ; only downright oaths, which I never use till 
urg'd, nor never break for urging. If thou canst love a fel- 
low of this temper, Kate, whose face is not worth sun-burn- 
ing, that never looks in his glass for love of any thing he 
sees there, let thine eye be thy cook. I speak to thee plain 
soldier : if thou canst love me for this, take me ; if not, to 
say to thee that I shall die, is true ; but for thy love, by the 
Lord, no ; yet I love thee too. And, while thou liv'st, dear 
Kate, take a fellow of plain and uncoin'd constancy ; for he 
perforce must do thee right, because he hath not the gift to 
woo in other places : for these fellows of infinite tongue, that 
can rhyme themselves into ladies' favours, they do always 
reason themselves out again. What ! a speaker is but a 

135. vaulting F3F4 1 vawtingFiF2. 148-149. by the Lord | by the L. Ff. 

134. measure. The quibble involves the three senses of 'measure,' 
— 'verse rhythm,' 'dancing,' and 'amount.' Cf. Richard II, III, iv, 7 ; 
Much Ado About Nothings II, i, 74. 

139-140. jack-an-apes. See Murray for the history of this word. 

150. uncoin'd constancy : an affection that has never ' gone forth,' a 
heart like virgin gold that has never had any image stamped upon it. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 161 

prater ; a rhyme is but a ballad. A good leg will fall ; a 
straight back will stoop ; a black beard will turn white ; a 
curl'd pate will grow bald ; a fair face will wither ; a full eye 
will wax hollow : but a good heart, Kate, is the sun and the 
moon ; or, rather, the sun, and not the moon ; for it shines 
bright, and never changes, but keeps his course truly. If 
thou would have such a one, take me ; and take me, take a 
soldier ; take a soldier, take a king : and what say'st thou, 
then, to my love? speak, my fair, and fairly, I pray thee. 

Katharine. Is it possible dat I sould love de enemy of 
France? 165 

King Henry. No ; it is not possible you should love the 
enemy of France, Kate : but, in loving me, you should love 
the friend of France; for I love France so well that I will 
not part with a village of it ; I will have it all mine : and, 
Kate, when France is mine and I am yours, then yours is 
France and you are mine. 171 

Katharine. I cannot tell wat is dat. 

King Henry. No, Kate? I will tell thee in French; 
which I am sure will hang upon my tongue like a new- 
married wife about her husband's neck, hardly to be shook 
off. Je quand sur le possession de France, et quand vous 
avez le possession de moi, — let me see, what then ? Saint 
Denis be my speed ! — done votre est France et vous etes 
mienne. It is as easy for me, Kate, to conquer the king- 
dom, as to speak so much more French : I shall never move 
thee in French, unless it be to laugh at me. 181 

172. wat Ff I vat Globe Camb. 176-177. le . . . le | la . . . la Capell. 

155. fall: fall away, shrink. Cf. As You Like It, II, vii, 160-161. 
177-178. Saint Denis be my speed : may St. Denis (the patron saint 
of France) help me to success ! For ' speed ' see Skeat. 



162 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Katharine. Sauf votre Honneur, le Frangois que vous 
parlez, il est meilleur que l'Anglois lequel je parle. 

King Henry. No, faith, is 't not, Kate ; but thy speaking 
of my tongue, and I thine, most truly-falsely, must needs be 
granted to be much at one. But, Kate, dost thou under- 
stand thus much English, canst thou love me? 

Katharine. I cannot tell. 188 

King Henry. Can any of your neighbours tell, Kate? 
I '11 ask them. Come, I know thou lovest me : and at night, 
when you come into your closet, you '11 question this gentle- 
woman about me; and I know, Kate, you will to her dis- 
praise those parts in me that you love with your heart : but, 
good Kate, mock me mercifully ; the rather, gentle princess, 
because I love thee cruelly. If ever thou beest mine, Kate, 
as I have a saving faith within me tells me thou shalt, I get 
thee with scambling, and thou must therefore needs prove 
a good soldier-breeder : shall not thou and I, between Saint 
Denis and Saint George, compound a boy, half French, half 
English, that shall go to Constantinople and take the Turk 
by the beard? shall we not? what say'st thou my fair flower- 
de-luce? 202 

Katharine. I do not know dat. 

King Henry. No ; 't is hereafter to know, but now to 
promise : do but now promise, Kate, you will endeavour 
for your French part of such a boy ; and for my English 
moiety take the word of a king and a bachelor. How answer 
you, la plus belle Katharine du monde, mon tres-cher et 
divin deesse? 209 

183. il est I il & Ff . — meilleur | melieus F1F2. 

197. scambling : struggling, fighting. Used as a present participle 
in I, i, 4. The form ' scramble ' is not found in Shakespeare. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 163 

Katharine. Your majeste ave fausse French enough to 
deceive de most sage demoiselle dat is en France. 211 

King Henry. Now, fie upon my false French ! By mine 
honour, in true English, I love thee, Kate : by which honour 
I dare not swear thou lovest me ; yet my blood begins to 
flatter me that thou dost, notwithstanding the poor and un- 
tempering effect of my visage. Now, beshrew my father's 
ambition ! he was thinking of civil wars when he got me : 
therefore was I created with a stubborn outside, with an 
aspect of iron, that, when I come to woo ladies, I fright 
them. But, in faith, Kate, the elder I wax, the better I 
shall appear : my comfort is, that old age, that ill layer-up 
of beauty, can do no more spoil upon my face : thou hast 
me, if thou hast me, at the worst ; and thou shalt wear me, 
if thou wear me, better and better. And therefore tell me, 
most fair Katharine, will you have me? Put off your maiden 
blushes ; avouch the thoughts of your heart with the looks 
of an empress ; take me by the hand, and say ' Harry of 
England, I am thine ' : which word thou shalt no sooner bless 
mine ear withal, but I will tell thee aloud 'England is thine, 
Ireland is thine, France is thine, and Henry Plantagenet is 
thine'; who, though I speak it before his face, if he be not 
fellow with the best king, thou shalt find the best king of 
good fellows. Come, your answer in broken music ; for thy 
voice is music, and thy English broken ; therefore, queen 
of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English : 
wilt thou have me? 236 

211. demoiselle | damoiseil F1F2. 225. your maiden | those Maiden F3F4. 

233. broken music. The expression, a technical one to describe 
certain kinds of 'part-music,' is here used, for the sake of the quibble 
implicit in it, to denote ' sweetest music' Cf. As You Like It, I, ii, 150. 



164 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

Katharine. Dat is as it shall please de roi mon pere. 

King Henry. Nay, it will please him well, Kate, it shall 
please him, Kate. 

Katharine. Den it sail also content me. 240 

King Henry. Upon that I kiss your hand, and I call you 
my queen. 

Katharine. Laissez, mon seigneur, laissez, laissez : ma 
foi, je ne veux point que vous abaissiez votre grandeur en 
baisant la main d'une de votre seigneurie indigne serviteur ; 
excusez-moi, je vous supplie, mon tres-puissant seigneur. 

King Henry. Then I will kiss your lips, Kate. 247 

Katharine. Les dames et demoiselles pour etre baisees 
devant leur noces, il n'est pas la coutume de France. 

King Henry. Madam my interpreter, what says she? 

Alice. Dat it is not be de fashion pour les ladies of 
France, — I cannot tell wat is baiser en Anglish. 

King Henry. To kiss. 

Alice. Your majesty entendre bettre que moi. 

King Henry. It is not a fashion for the maids in France 
to kiss before they are married, would she say? 

Alice. Oui, vraiment. 257 

King Henry. O Kate, nice customs curtsy to great kings. 
Dear Kate, you and I cannot be confm'd within the weak 

243. Laissez Rowe | Laisse Ff. 249. noces Dyce Globe Camb | 

244. abaissiez | abbaisse Ff. nopcese Ff. 

245. d'une . . . indigne Globe 251. les Theobald | le Ff. 
Camb I d'une nostre Seigneur in- 252. wat F1F2F3 | vat Globe 
dignie Ff. Camb. — baiser Hanmer | buisse Ff. 

246. excusez-moi Rowe | excuse 255. It is F1F2 I Is it F3F4. 

moy Ff. 258. curtsy | cursie Ff | courtesy 

248. baise'es Theobald | baisee Fi. Globe Camb. 

258. nice customs curtsy : prudish conventions yield. Cf. ' nice,' 
line 263; 'nicely,' line 94. See note, I, ii, 15. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 165 

list of a country's fashion : we are the makers of manners, 
Kate ; and the liberty that follows our places stops the 
mouth of all find-faults ; as I will do yours for upholding 
the nice fashion of your country in denying me a kiss : 
therefore, patiently and yielding. \Kissing her] You have 
witchcraft in your lips, Kate : there is more eloquence in a 
sugar touch of them than in the tongues of the French 
council; and they should sooner persuade Harry of Eng- 
land than a general petition of monarchs. Here comes 
your father. 269 

Re-enter the French King and his Queen, Burgundy, 
and other Lords 

Burgundy. God save your majesty ! my royal cousin, 
Teach you our princess English? 

King Henry. I would have her learn, my fair cousin, 
how perfectly I love her ; and that is good English. 

Burgundy. Is she not apt? 274 

King Henry. Our tongue is rough, coz, and my condition 
is not smooth ; so that, having neither the voice nor the 
heart of flattery about me, I cannot so conjure up the spirit 
of love in her, that he will appear in his true likeness. 278 

Burgundy. Pardon the frankness of my mirth, if I answer 
you for that. If you would conjure in her, you must make 

264. [Kissingker] Rowe | Ffomit. pell Globe Camb | Enter the French 
270. Scene V Pope I Scene IV Han- Power, and the English Lords Ff. 
mer. — Re-enter . . . other Lords Ca- 274. not F1F2 I F3F4 omit. 

260. list: barrier. Cf. 1 Henry IV, IV, i, 51. The plural usually 
denoted the inclosed space within which tilting-matches, or tourna- 
ments, were held. 

280-281. Conjurers used to mark out a circle on the ground, 
w T ithih w T hich their conjuring was to take effect by the appearance 



1 66 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

a circle ; if conjure up love in her in his true likeness, he 
must appear naked and blind. Can you blame her then, 
being a maid yet ros'd over with the virgin crimson of mod- 
esty, if she deny the appearance of a naked blind boy? It 
were, my lord, a hard condition for a maid to consign to. '285 

King Henry. Yet they do wink and yield, as love is 
blind and enforces. 

Burgundy. They are then excus'd, my lord, when they 
see not what they do. 

King Henry. Then, good my lord, teach your cousin to 
consent winking. 291 

Burgundy. I will wink on her to consent, my lord, if 
you will teach her to know my meaning : for maids, well 
summer'd and warm kept, are like flies at Bartholomew- 
tide, blind, though they have their eyes. 295 

King Henry. This moral ties me over to time and a hot 
summer ; and so I shall catch the fly, your cousin, in the 
latter end and she must be blind too. 

Burgundy. As love is, my lord, before it loves. 299 

King Henry. It is so : and you may, some of you, thank 
love for my blindness, who cannot see many a fair French 
city for one fair French maid that stands in my way. 

French King. Yes, my lord, you see them perspectively, 
the cities turn'd into a maid ; for they are girdled with 
maiden walls that war hath never enter'd. 305 

305. never Rowe | not Capell | Ff omit. 

of the beings invoked. Probably an equivoque is here intended, 
'circle' being also used for 'crown.' 

294-295. Bartholomew-tide : St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24. 

303. perspectively: as in a 'perspective.' A 'perspective' was 
" a glass cut in such a manner as to produce an optical deception 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 167 

King Henry. Shall Kate be my wife? 

French King. So please you. 

King Henry. I am content ; so the maiden cities you 
talk of may wait on her : so the maid that stood in the way 
for my wish shall show me the way to my will. 310 

French King. We have consented to all terms of reason. 

King Henry. Is 't so, my lords of England? 

Westmoreland. The king hath granted every article : 
His daughter first ; and then in sequel all, 
According to their firm proposed natures. 315 

Exeter. Only, he hath not yet subscribed this : Where 
your majesty demands that the King of France, having any 
occasion to write for matter of grant, shall name your high- 
ness in this form and with this addition, in French, Notre 
tres-cher fils Henri, roi d'Angleterre, heritier de France ; 
and thus in Latin, Prseclarissimus filius noster Henricus, 
rex Anglise, et haeres Franciae. 322 

French King. Nor this I have not, brother, so denied, 
But your request shall make me let it pass. 

314. and then F2F3F4 I and Fi. 320. heritier Globe Camb | Here- 

317. any F1F2 I F3F4 omit. tere Ff. 

when looked through." — Schmidt. Cf. Twelfth Night, V, i, 224-225 : 
One face, one voice, one habit and two persons, 
A natural perspective that is and is not. 

321. 'Praeclarissimus'isfor'praecarissimus.' In this blunder Shake- 
speare follows Holinshed, who followed the second (1550) edition of 
Hall's Chronicle, where the * precharissimus ' of the first edition 
(1548), used correctly to translate 'tres cher' in the original treaty 
of Troyes, is misprinted 'preclarissimus.' "Also that our said 
father, during his life, shall name, call, and w T rite vs in French in 
this maner : Nostre treschier filz Henry roy tV Engleterre heretere de 
France. And in Latine in this maner : Praclarissimus filius noster 
Henricus rex Anglice 6° hceres Francice" — Holinshed. 



1 68 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE act v 

King Henry. I pray you, then, in love and dear alliance, 
Let that one article rank with the rest ; 326 

And thereupon give me your daughter. 

French King. Take her, fair son ; and from her blood 
raise up 
Issue to me ; that the contending kingdoms 
Of France and England, whose very shores look pale 330 
With envy of each other's happiness, 
May cease their hatred ; and this dear conjunction 
Plant neighbourhood and Christian-like accord 
In their sweet bosoms, that never war advance 
His bleeding sword 'twixt England and fair France. 335 

All. Amen ! 

King Henry. Now, welcome, Kate; and bear me wit- 
ness all, 
That here I kiss her as my sovereign queen. [FlourisJt] 

Queen Isabel. God, the best maker of all marriages, 
Combine your hearts in one, your realms in one ! 340 

As man and wife, being two, are one in love, 
So be there 'twixt your kingdoms such a spousal, 
That never may ill office, or fell jealousy, 
Which troubles oft the bed of blessed marriage, 
Thrust in between the paction of these kingdoms, 345 

334. bosoms I breasts Pope. 345. paction Theobald | pation F1F2 I 

336. All Rowe | Lords Ff. passion F3F4. 

330. A fanciful allusion to the white cliffs of the two countries. 
Cf. Austria's description of England, King John, II, i, 23 : " that pale, 
that white-fac'd shore, Whose foot spurns back the ocean's roaring 
tides." 

343. ill office : unworthy action. Cf. Two Gentlemen of Verona, 
III, ii, 40: "'Tis an ill office for a gentleman." 

345. Thrust in : intrude. — paction : alliance, league. 



scene ii KING HENRY THE FIFTH 169 

To make divorce of their incorporate league ; 
That English may as French, French Englishmen, 
Receive each other ! God speak this Amen ! 

All. Amen ! 

King Henry. Prepare we for our marriage : on which 
day, 350 

My Lord of Burgundy, we '11 take your oath, 
And all the peers', for surety of our leagues. 
Then shall I swear to Kate, and you to me ; 
And may our oaths well kept and prosperous be ! 

[Sennet. Exeunt] 

352. peers' Capell | Peeres Ff. — 354. [Sennet | Senet Fi I Sonet 

leagues | league Dyce. F2F3F4 I Sonnet Rowe. 

349-354. In Holinshed the matter is stated thus : 

When this great matter was finished, the kings sware for their parts to 
obserue all the couenants of this league and agreement. Likewise the Duke 
of Burgognie and a great number of other princes and nobles which were 
present receiued an oth. . . . This doone, the morow after Trinitie sundaie 
being the third of Iune, the mariage was solemnized and fully consummate 
betwixt the king of England and the said ladie Katharine. 

354. Sennet. This is a term common in Elizabethan stage direc- 
tions to describe a set of notes on a trumpet sounded as a signal of 
entrance or departure. It is etymologically of uncertain origin, but 
is probably connected with Old Fr. szgnet, Lat. signum. Cf. 'signa- 
ture ' in musical notation. " The printer of the second Folio when 
he misread ' Sonet' for ' Senet ' probably supposed it to be the title 
of the poem of fourteen lines, which the Chorus speaks, though the 
position of the word is ambiguous. The printer of the fourth Folio 
and Rowe place it as if it belonged to the Enter Chorus." — Clar. 



EPILOGUE 



Enter Chorus 

Chorus. Thus far, with rough and all-unable pen, 

Our bending author hath pursu'd the story ; 
In little room confining mighty men, 

Mangling by starts the full course of their glory. 
Small time, but in that small most greatly liv'd 5 

This star of England : Fortune made his sword ; 
By which the world's best garden he achiev'd, 

And of it left his son imperial lord. 
Henry the Sixth, in infant bands crown'd King 

Of France and England, did this king succeed; 10 

Whose state so many had the managing, 

That they lost France and made his England bleed : 
Which oft our stage hath shown ; and, for their sake, 
In your fair minds let this acceptance take. \_Exit] 

EPILOGUE I Ff omit. 12. made Fi | make F2F3F4. 

8. lord. Fi I lord, F2F3F4. 14. [Exit] Capell | Ff omit. 

EPILOGUE. This is in the form of a regular Shakespearian 
sonnet, — three quatrains, with alternate rhyme, and a couplet. 

2. bending. Steevens's interpretation is, " unequal to the weight 
of his subject, and bending beneath it; or ... as in Hamlet, III, 
ii, 160, ' Here stooping to your clemency.' " 

4. Giving only fragmentary glimpses of their glorious careers. 

6. star of England. "A lode-starre in honour." — Holinshed. 

11. Whose state . . . the managing. For this idiom see Abbott, § 93. 

13. oft. The reference is to the three parts of Henry VI, which, 
it is implied here, had been received favorably. 

170 



INDEX 

I. WORDS AND PHRASES 

This Index includes the most important words, phrases, etc., explained in 
the notes. The figures in heavy-faced type refer to the pages ; those in plain 
type, to the lines containing what is explained. 



A (he): 50 10. 

absolute : 90 24. 

accept (accepted) : 
157 82. 

accompt: 4 17. 

accord : 44 86. 

ActV, Scene I: 149 l. 

Act IE, Scene IV, au- 
thenticity of: 73 l. 

admiration did not hoop : 
45 108. 

advantageable : 158 88. 

advantages: 112 272, 
121 50. 

advice : 42 43. 

advise himself: 88 156. 

advised : 22 179. 

Agincourt: 121 40. 

air, a charter'd liber- 
tine : 9 48. 

Alexandrine verse : 36 
61, 82 39. 

all my mother : 132 31. 

ancient: 33 3. 

and (if): 38 97, 98. 

and if : 58 120. 

and't: 137 115, 118,126. 

antics: 65 31. 

apprehension : 95 130. 

approbation: 14 19. 

Archbishop of Canter- 
bury: 6 l. 

argument: 106 138. 



assays : 21 151. 
auncient lieutenant : 

80 11-12. 
awkward : 56 85. 
babbled of green fields : 

50 16. 
ball: 111 248. 
balm: 111 248. 
bar: 154 27. 
Barbason : 36 49. 
barley broth: 77 19. 
Bartholomew-tide: 166 

294-295. 
basilisk: 154 17. 
bate : 94 107. 
battle (army) : 97 9. 
bawcock : 65 25. 
beard of the general's 

cut : 84 75. 
beaver: 117 44. 
Bedford: 12 l. 
bending: 170 2. 
bent: 154 16. 
berries thrive, etc.: 10 

61-62. 
beseech'd : 68 104. 
Bishop of Ely: 6 l. 
blown from adulation : 

111 242. 
blown that vice in me : 

87 149. 
bolted : 46 137. 
book: 135 68. 

171 



breff : 69 112. 

bring : 49 1. 

broached: 148 32. 

broken metre : 32 32. 

broken music : 163 233. 

broken seals of per- 
jury : 107 156. 

bubukles : 85 100. 

burnet: 155 49. 

butt: 23 186. 

buxom: 81 25. 

Cadwallader: 150 25. 

Cambridge: 40 12. 

Cambridge, his object 
in joining the con- 
spiracy: 47 155-157. 

candlesticks: 117 45. 

cap : 94 109. 

careful: 110 219. 

carry coals : 66 45. 

case : 64 4. 

caveto : 52 46. 

ceremonies: 105 102. 

chaces : 27 266. 

chantries : 113 289. 

charitably dispose: 
106 137. 

Charlemain : 1 7 75. 

charter' d libertine : 9 
48. 

cheeks are paper: 43 74. 

cherishing the exhib- 
iters : 10 74. 



172 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 



cheval volant : 89 14. 
chez : 89 14. 
chide : 58 125. 
chien . . . bourbier : 92 

60-61, 
christom: 50 n. 
chuck : 65 25. 
circle: 165 280-281. 
close : 23 182. 
cockpit: 4 11. 
comes o'er us : 27 267. 
comic scenes ended : 

152 80. 
companies (compan- 
ions) : 9 55. 
con : 83 73. 
condition: 152 72. 
confounded : 62 13. 
congreeing : 23 182. 
congreeted : 154 31. 
consent : 22 181. 
convey'd himself as : 

17 74. 
corantos : 78 33. 
couple a gorge : 37 66. 
craft and vantage : 87 

141. 
create : 41 31. 
crescive : 10 66. 
Crispian: 121 40. 
crowns : 110 214-217. 
crush'd necessity : 22 

175. 
crystals: 52 47. 
cue: 86 121. 
cullions : 64 21. 
cursorary : 157 77. 
curtle-axe : 116 21. 
dare the field: 116 36. 
darnel, hemlock, etc.: 

155 45. 
dat is de princess : 1 5 9 

120. 
Dauphin: 53 14. 
Dauphin not present at 

Agincourt : -89 l. 



Dauphin's ejaculations : 
114 2-6. 

Davy Gam: 144 loo. 

deck'd in modest com- 
pliment : 46 134. 

defective in their na- 
tures : 156 55. 

defensible : 72 50. 

defus'd: 156 61. 

Delabreth: 78 40. 

deracinate: 155 47. 

devil: 129 68. 

die (live, Coleridge): 
121 38. 

digest the abuse of dis- 
tance : 32 31-32. 

digt himself : 66 59. 

directly: 159 126. 

dishonest : 15 49. 

distemper : 42 54. 

distressful bread : 1 12 
258. 

division into acts and 
scenes : 6 l. 

double comparatives : 
78 39. 

dout: 115 11. 

Dramatis Personam : 2, 
note i. 

dress us : 100 10. 

duke : 65 22. 

Duke of Bourbon : 75 i. 

Duke of Britaine: 76 
10. 

duty: 41 31. 

eat all he kills : 93 87. 

Edward, Duke of York : 
125 129. 

Edward, his great- 
grandfather: 11 89. 

Edward the Black 
Prince: 19 105. 

either (monosyllabic) : 
61 21. 

elder-gun: 109 189. 

element (sky): 105 101. 



elements : 90 20. 
emperor (Sigismund): 

148 38. 
empery: 25 226. 
enforced: 134 57. 
England . . . shores look 

pale: 168 330. 
enter Chorus : 3 l. 
entertain conjecture of: 

97 l. 
Epilogue: 170 l. 
Erpingham: 101 13. 
Essex's expedition to 

Ireland : 148 30-32. 
even-pleach'd : 155 42. 
excursions : 126 l. 
executors : 24 203. 
Exeter: 12 l. 
exhale : 36 57. 
expectation :30 s. 
expedience : 122 70. 
fall: 161 155. 
famine, sword, and fire : 

3 7. 
farced: 112 251. 
fat-brain'd: 95 128. 
favour : 156 63. 
fear'd: 21 155. 
fet: 63 18. 
fierce (dissyllabic) : 57 

99. 
fig of Spain: 83 58. 
figo: 83 56. 
find: 17 72. 
firk . . . ferret : 127 28- 

29. 
five thousand: 123 76. 
fix'd : 97 6. 
flesh'd: 55 50, 70 11. 
Fluellen's dialect: 64 

20. 
Fluellen's pedantry : 

66 57. 
fool's bolt, etc. : 94 117. 
for (for want of): 19 

114. 



INDEX 



173 



force a play : 32 32. 
fortune ... foe : 82 38. 
fox: 126 9. 
France (dissyllabic) : 

22 167. 
freckled cowslip : 155 

49. 
French hose: 91 49. 
French king: 52 1. 
from : 84 84. 
galliard : 26 252. 
garb: 152 69. 
gates of mercy: 70 10. 
gentle his condition : 

122 63. 
gesture sad investing : 

98 25-26. 
giddy: 21 145. 
gilt . . . guilt : 32 26. 
gimmal'd: 117 49. 
gives (third person 

plural in s): 14 27. 
gleaned : 21 151. 
gleeking: 152 67. 
Gloucester: 12 1. 
gloze : 15 40. 
goats : 150 25. 
God before: 29 307, 88 

153. 
God-den: 67 80. 
great seats: 78 47. 
great sort: 138 129. 
greatest admiration : 

103 67. 
Grey : 40 12. 
guard; on: 118 60. 
gun-stones : 28 282. 
habit: 86 ill. 
haggled: 131 11. 
hairs : 89 13. 
Hampton : 60 4. 
Harfleur: 61 17. 
hazard: 93 80. 
head: 41 18. 
heady: 71 32. 
heady currance : 8 34. 



help Hyperion to his 
horse: 112 263. 

Henry V, birth, acces- 
sion and death : 
12 1. 

Henry V a Welshman : 
103 52. 

Henry Lord Scroop of 
Masham: 31 24. 

Herod's . . . slaughter- 
men: 72 41. 

hilding: 116 29. 

hilts : 30 9. 

his : 81 30. 

his(\r): 18 88. 

honey-bees : 23 187. 

honour would thee do : 
31 18. 

humour of it : 36 54. 

humorous : 54 28. 

Huntingdon: 157 85. 

huswif : 152 73. 

hydra-headed : 8 35. 

I eat and eat: 151 43. 

Iceland dog : 35 36. 

if (Tynvhitt's conj.) : 
113 279. 

ill-favouredly become : 
117 40. 

ill office: 168 343. 

imaginary forces : 4 18. 

imagin'd wing : 60 1. 

imbar : 1 8 94. 

imp : 102 45. 

impawn: 14 21. 

impeachment : 87 139. 

in (into) : 23 184. 

indirectly: 57 94. 

ingrateful : 44 95. 

instance : 45 119. 

intendment: 21 144. 

-ion (dissyllabic): 3 2, 
19 114. 

irreconciPd iniquities : 
107 146. 

it (its): 155 40. 



jack-an-apes : 160 139- 

140. 
jade : 90 23. 
just, just : 95 141. 
jutty: 62 13. 
Katharine: 73 1. 
kecksies : 156 52. 
kern: 91 49. 
keynote of the play: 

3 1. 
kind kinsman : 1 1 9 10. 
king has kill'd his 

heart: 38 82. 
King Henry's glove : 

141 37. 
King of Scots : 21 161. 
kite of Cressid's kind : 

37 71. 
larding: 131 8. 
late: 43 61. 
lavoltas: 78 33. 
lazars : 7 15. 
leash'd in like hounds : 

3 7. 
leek: 103 55. 
legerity: 101 23. 
let: 156 65. 
Lewis (monosyllabic) : 

17 76. - 

Lewis his satisfaction: 

18 88. 

Lewis the tenth : 1 7 77. 
lieutenant-corporal: 35 

33. 
lig i' the grund : 69 

110-111. 
likes : 61 32. 
line : 53 7. 
linstock : 61 33. 
lion gait : 45 122. 
list: 165 260. 
live in brass : 124 97. 
living hence : 28 270. 
longs (belong): 56 80. 
mangling . . . course . . . 

glory: 170 4. 



174 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 



mean and gentle, etc.: 
99 45-47. 

measure: 160 134. 
memorable : 57 88. 
men of mould: 65 22. 
mervailous : 35 42. 
mettle of your pasture : 

63 27. 
mightiness (plural): 

154 28. 
mince it: 159 126. 
minding: 100 53. 
miscreate : 13 16. 
mockeries : 100 53. 
modest in exception : 

54 34. 
Monmouth caps: 136 

94-95. 
Montjoy: 87 135. 
mope : 95 128. 
morris dance: 53 25. 
mote: 108 170. 
mountain sire : 55 57. 
mountaineer: 150 32. 
moy: 126 13. 
native punishment: 

107 159. 
new-tun'd: 84 74. 
nice customs curtsy: 

164 258. 
nicely: 13 15, 158 94. 
nook-shotten : 77 14. 
Nym: 33 1. 
0: 4 13. 

obscure his contem- 
plation: 10 63-64. 
diable, etc. : 129 1-3. 
o'erblows: 71 31. 
oft: 170 13. 
omit no happy hour : 

29 300. 
ordinance : 58 126. 
ostent : 147 21. 
over-bears attaint : 99 

39. 
overshot: 94 119. 



own hair : 92 57. 
paction: 168 345. 
pales in: 146 10. 
passes . . . careers : 39 

121. 
pauca: 37 74. 
pay: 108 188. 
peace to this meeting : 

153 l. 
peevish : 95 127. 
penitence . . . pardon: 

114 292-293. 
Pepin and Hugh Capet: 

16 65-69. 
perdy: 35 44. 
perilous narrow ocean : 

5 22. 
perspectively: 166303. 
Pharamond : 15 37. 
pioners: 68 83. 
pitch and pay : 5 1 42. 
pity of : 71 28. 
pix (pax): 82 39. 
plain-song : 64 5. 
plural in s: 112 272. 
pocketing up of wrongs : 

66 49. 
popular: 102 38. 
popularity : 9 59. 
poring: 97 2. 
portage: 62 10. 
possess him with : 105 

107. 
practic: 9 51. 
practices : 44 90. 
praeclarissimus : 167 

321. 
precepts: 71 26. 
presently: 157 79. 
prisoners to be killed : 

132 37. 
proportion: 45 109. 
proportions: 20 137, 29 

304, 54 45. 
puissance : 5 25. 
purchase: 65 41,1 39163. 



qualtitie calmie, etc. : 
126 4. 

question: 6 5, 69 113. 

quick: 43 79. 

quit: 47 166. 

quit you: 78 47. 

quit you with gud leve: 
68 99. 

quittance : 42 34. 

quotidian tertian : 39 
114. 

rackets : 27 261. 

ragged curtains: 117 
41. 

raise ... a mighty sum: 
20 133. 

raught : 131 21. 

rawly: 106 135. 

reduce: 156 63. 

relapse of mortality: 
124 107. 

relative with singular 
verb after plural an- 
tecedent: 4 9. 

resolv'd: 13 4. 

respect : 151 65. 

rest (determination) : 
•34 15. 

Richard Earl of Cam- 
bridge : 31 23. 

rim : 126 14. 

ripe : 86 120. 

rivage : 61 14. 

rivets : 98 13. 

roping: 77 23. 

Rouen : 79 54. 

round: 109 194. 

rub : 49 188. 

sad-eyed : 24 202. 

Saint Denis be my 
speed: 161 177-178. 

Salic law: 14 35-40, 
15 43-64. 

savagery: 155 47. 

scald : 149 5. 

scambling:6 4,162l97. 



INDEX 



175 



scions : 76 8. 
sconce : 83 71. 
Scroop : 40 12. 
security : 42 44. 
self (same) : 6 l. 
sennet: 169 354. 
severals : 1 1 86. 
shales: 115 18. 
snog : 35 40. 
sinfully miscarry: 107 

142. 
singular verb before 

plural subject: 52 1. 
Sir Thomas Gray: 31 

24. 
skirr: 134 56. 
slanders of : 84 78. 
slough: 101 23. 
slovenry : 125 114. 
solemnly: 147 14. 
solus: 35 41. 
sorts: 23 190. 
speculation: 116 31. 
speed: 161 177. 
spend their mouths : 

56 70. 
spital: 37 69, 152 74. 
sprays: 76 5. 
squire of low degree : 

150 33. 
state : 23 184. 
sternage : 61 18. 
still: 21 145. 
stomach: 96 148. 
stood: 158 94. 
stood on : 83 73. 



stoop: 105 104. 
strait strossers : 91 50. 
sufferance : 47 159. 
suggest: 45 114. 
suit : 84 75. 
sur-rein'd : 77 19. 
swashers : 65 29. 
swill'd: 62 14. 
sworn brothers : 33 11, 

66 43-44. 
sympathize with: 95 

141. 

take : 36 47, 109 2C6. 
tender: 48 175. 
that (so that) : 97 6. 
theoric : 9 52. 
thrust in: 168 345. 
thy : 1 1 1 233. 
tike : 34 26. 
trumpet: 118 61. 
tucket: 86 ill. 
tucket sonance : 116 

35. 
tun : 26 255. 
Turkish mute : 25 232. 
turning of the tide : 

50 13. 
umber'd: 97 9. 
uncoin'd constancy : 

160 150. 
unities of time and 

place : 5 29-31. 
unprovided: 108 165. 
upon the king, etc. : 

110 218-272. 
vasty : 45 123. 



vaward : 125 130. 

verb attracted to 
plural: 154 19. 

very : 4 ]3. 

vigil : 121 45. 

vile and rugged foils : 
100 50. 

void his rheum : 79 52. 

Warwick: 12 1. 

waxen epitaph: 25 
233. 

well-appointed : 60 4. 

Westmoreland: 12 1. 

whelks : 85 100. 

wheresome'er : 49 7. 

which . . . projection 
. . . cloth: 54 46-48. 

whiffler: 146 12. 

white liver'd: 65 32. 

whose state . . . man- 
aging : 170 11. 

Williams and Fluellen 
types of national 
character: 141 27- 
36. 

womby vaultages : 5 8 
124. 

working . . . cause: 
45 107. 

wrangler : 27 264. 

wringing : 110 224. 

wrongs: 14 27. 

yearn: 49 3, 120 26. 

yield the crow a pud- 
ding: 38 81. 



II. QUOTATIONS FROM HOLINSHED 



Agincourt (the battle 
so named) : 135 
61-85. 

Agincourt, list of the 
slain : 143 71-102. 



Te Deum sung after 
the victory: 145 119. 

Alengon and myself, 
etc. : 138 146-147. 

attitude of the French 



Agincourt, psalms and king: 75 1-2. 



bill to seize lands, etc. : 

7 7-19. 
book of Numbers : 1 8 

98. 
bowels of the Lord : 

57 102. 



176 THE NEW HUDSON SHAKESPEARE 



bruised helmet . . . for- 
bids it: 147 18-19. 

by ten : 96 150. 

Calais : 146 7. 

captive chariot : 79 54. 

covetous for gold : 120 
24. 

defection of Cambridge, 
Scroop, and Grey : 31 
22-27. 

Edward III at Crecy: 
19 105. 

emperor (Sigismund) : 
148 38. 

Erpingham : 101 13. 

famine, sword, and 
fire: 3 7. 

five to one: 119 4. 

French leaders : 89 1. 

gun stones : 28 282. 

Henry's answer to 
Mont joy: 88 157- 
159. 



if that you will France 
win : 22 167. 

keeping the bridge: 
80 1-4. 

King Henry's ransom : 
123 79-125. 

Lewis the tenth : 17 77. 

Mayor and all his 
brethren, etc.: 14725. 

mining and countermin- 
ing : 66 59. 

mirror of . . . kings : 
30 6. 

Mont joy rewarded : 
88 155. 

pax (pix) : 82 39. 

Pepin and Hugh Capet : 
16 64-77. 

play at dice : 98 19. 

prseclarissimus : 167 
321. 

prepare we for our mar- 
riage: 169 350. 



raise ... a mighty 

sum: 20 133. 
Salic law: 14 35-40, 

15 43-64. 

Scroop in favor with 

the king: 40 8-11. 
Scroop's character: 

46 138-140. 

sentence of the con- 
spirators : 48 174- 
181. 

star of England: 170 6. 

surrender of Harfleur : 
72 45^-49. 

tennis-balls : 27 258. 

three score thousand : 

119 3. 
trophy . . . signal . . . 

to God : 147 21-22. 
what 's he that wishes 

so: 120 18. 
winter coming on: 72 

55. 



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